THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
i 220 
[January 9. 
i effects, under tender roots, to keep them from cold bot- 
| toms; and also as a thatcli to throw off snow water from 
i where such roots could not well do without some kind of 
covering. I have even gone so far with it as to keep the 
roots of a thirsty plant from receiving a single drop of 
water, in any shape whatever, for the space of five years 
in succession; and yet the roots never lacked moisture 
all the time ; while the plants, under the discipline, kept 
improving all the time. It will not he thought strange, 
j therefore, if I say that my mind is fully satisfied as to 
j the use and abuse of concreting; nevertheless, with the 
exception of my new walks and new roads, I never yet 
j recommended the use of concrete; nor do I now, and for 
[ this reason, that with tli9 greatest latitude, I cannot 
| reconcile its effects with any known principle already 
j familiar to the tillers of the soil; and it is in direct 
I opposition to every idea yet set forth about cultivation. 
Some of our very best gardeners have occasionally let 
out a few glimpses of the value and use of concreting, 
in a way that all of us could refer to old ideas; and from 
such facts, a sound theory has been established lately. 
When tire evil tyrant, however, will let go his grasp, 
| and we are permitted to hear all that is thoroughly 
known on the subject, tliis theory shall crumble down— 
or rather be taken down—by the builders of it; and I 
think I know who could tell much about this founda¬ 
tion, if we could get him to take up his pen. I must 
observe, in fairness, however, that when a number of 
isolated parts, all tending the same way, are laid before 
the man of science, who after carefully and patiently— 
as has been the case with concrete—weighing the evi¬ 
dence before him, propounds a theory thereon, according 
to the facts produced, he has done all that is required of 
science to do—explained the natural laws on the subject; 
and the Lord Chancellor could do no more in a case of 
equity. 
The use which I wish to make of this garden concrete 
to-day, is to point it out to gardeners as inapplicable for 
roads and walks; it is too flat, or too rich, as we say, for 
that purpose; it is all made up with fine gravel, and 
lime or chalk, in the proportion of one to six; and it 
will be remembered that 1 said at first, page 191, that 
j walks are best when made with “ solid concrete: made 
■ with anything, except k gravel, that will concrete;” and 
now I put more stress on this, as I have heard already 
of old walks that are to be concreted over the surface 
next M arch; the present top gravel to be used instead 
of fresh. This would certainly be better than the old 
walks, if only to get rid of weeding; but unless the bot¬ 
tom is very dry indeed, and much less chalk or lime be 
used than is now done, for concreting to thatch borders, 
the first frost will split them all to pieces. That would 
not signify much in a garden-walk, as on the first dry 
j day, the roller would put the whole together as firmly as 
j at first; and that is the reason for saying that concrete 
j is superior to the Roman cement spoken of; once the 
| cement is crushed or broken, it is like glass, you cannot 
! put it together a second time. Not so this kind of con- 
: crete: whenever the frost overtakes it in a damp state, 
j it loosens the surface in some degree, but that is soon 
i settled, as I have just said. Now, on a road much fre¬ 
quented, if the top has been laid with gravel and lime, 
J and it gets loose by the frost, the wheels will sink into it 
more or less; that is not the case, however, when small 
stones are used. Though they be loosed by a very hard 
frost, after rain, their concrete bed keeps them still so 
! close, that the wheels cannot remove them to and fro. 
j Although we say here, that we make our walks cheaper 
tiian other people, there is one, eight feet wide, which 
j cost twenty-two shillings per running yard, five years 
! ago. It is nine feet deep ; and the foundation was laid 
j forty-eight feet wide, just forty feet wider than at the 
[ surface: the reason for tliis was to get to the level of 
other walks, which formed part of a design for an ever¬ 
green winter garden; the whole was made up with chalk, j 
to within two feet of the required level; the rest with 
soil, except the breadth of the walk in the middle. In | 
carting in the chalk, the horses or wheels came against 
the guide sticks, at any rate, as they could not say no, 
they were blamed, when it was proved that the first ; 
levels were out of joint by two inches; and as every one 
knows an inch out of level in a design is as much as a 
mile in many things, there was nothing for it but to 
reduce the intended depth of the walk by two inches; j 
three inches of concrete over the body of chalk was to 
be the proposed walk, but now one inch must suffice, or l 
else submit to have the walk like a pig with one ear, in 
reference to the other walks in the design. The walk ! 
had a good fall too; and this inch must be made in ear¬ 
nest, else the first summer storm would wash it down to 
the bottom, where an Arcadian shepherd and his dog sit 
quietly watcliing the whole scene, and that would never 
do. Well, a rough garden screen with which cinders 
are sifted, was put by the side of a large heap of gravel 
close by, and the roughest parts from the heap were soon 
searched out—all the hands on the job feeling anxious 
about the credit of the “ Suffolk Days,” as it' this walk 
shoidd fail, they would be sure to have the blame for 
altering the levels. To ten barrow loads of this rough 
gravel, one barrow load of fresh slacked lime, at three¬ 
pence the bushel, right hot from the kiln, was added; 
the foundation chalk well watered, and nearly two inches 
of the mixture spread over it, almost quicker than 1 can 
write about it; a hand roller passed over it as hurriedly 
as possible : three men required to take it up hill, and 
two to walk after the roller coming down, with a man 
by the roller both journeys to keep it clean, with an old 
broom, as the concrete had not time to dry before the 
rolling must be finished; and from that day to this, 1 
believe no one has told of the level sticks, whoever put 
them wrong. Next morning, the roller, with some ad¬ 
ditional weights inside, went to work as earnestly as on 
the evening before; and after awhile, it was reported 
that the concrete was pressed down to the level required; 
but whether the bottom of the concrete was sunk into 
the chalk one inch, or whether the clmlk rose so much 
amongst the concrete, remains a secret to this day; cer¬ 
tain it is, that this nine feet deep walk had hardly two 
inches of prepared concrete in the loose state, and that 
a quarter of an inch of fine gravel is about all the ad¬ 
dition it has had these five years; as the flat end of a 
budding knife has proved more than once to incredulous 
visitors. 
Talking of the incredulous, reminds me of a story 
which is too good to be lost. The respectable firm, who 
contracted for the new buildings here, are the well- 
known Messrs. Lucas and Brothers, of Norwich and Lon¬ 
don ; they too arc great road-makers, after the Telford 
and McAdam school, when they build a large house 
or castle in a park, or alter old ones; the next thing is 
to make carriage roads and “coach rings.” Now, one 
would think, of all people in the world, great builders 
ought to have been the first to lay down a concrete 
road ; more especially, when, as in the present instance, 
such builders take to road-making as part of their call¬ 
ing. What difference could it be between a bed of 
stones from the beach, made up with blue lias lime, into 
concrete, for the foundation of a castle, than for a car- | 
riage road to that castle?—only in the weights each bed 
would have to uphold. If a man, or set of men, will not 
hesitate to pile up a thousand tons on a ten feet square 
of concrete, not more than two feet in thickness, surely 
they could risk ten tons on the same space, if only of 
one-fourth the strength ? Notwithstanding their great 
experience in both branches, the Messrs. Lucas pro 
tested against altering the old road, till they had the 
first ship load of stone up at the front-door; saying, the 
extra hauling would take the cream off their contract, if 
