118 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 10. 
Master Andr. Hill, tbinketh moist weather is best, that 
the earth cleaving to the roots may be also removed 
with them, the earth being fast bound with Fearn 
branches to the roots), removed diverse Apple-trees, 
Damson-trees, &c., being of thirty or forty years growth, 
at Hackney ; the earth was digged in a large compassc 
from the roots, the roots little hurt; holes were prepared 
for each tree beforehand, enriched with fresh and good 
earth ; the branches and tops taken off almost close to 
the trunk; and they were planted again in the same 
bower wherein they were removed, and the roots placed 
towards the same point of the compasse as they first 
grew. He had a few Damsons the first year, and all 
put forth leaves at Michaelmas after, anno 1598.— Plat’s 
Garden of Eden. 
COVENT GARDEN. 
The market gardeners of London have always been 
celebrated for the high state of cultivation which their 
land presents, and it is on this account that they are 
enabled to do, under high rents, expensive labour, and 
oppressive rates, what in other parts of the country 
would, under the most favourable circumstances, be 
considered almost miraculous. It was about the be¬ 
ginning or middle of March, that we saw some five or 
six acres of Cos Lettuces planted out during a few days 
of sunshine and hope, but in a few days more they 
were so punished by the severe frost that followed, that 
scarcely a vestige of them was to be seen. Some pro- 
phecied the crop was lost, and to all appearance it was 
so. You might, by looking over the field, see where some¬ 
thing had been, but a stranger could not have told 
j what. We saw these same five or six acres a day or 
' two ago, and what a few weeks since seemed a blank, 
is now one of the finest patches of Cos Lettuce, four 
inches high, that is to be seen in all the county of 
Middlesex. But where, in all this kingdom or the next 
to it, is there another six acres of Cos Lettuce that 
could have gone through so much, and now look so 
well, except under the regime of a London market- 
gardener? It was the state of the soil, saturated as it 
is with London manure, that has brought these Lettuces 
to what they are. 
We saw another and a smaller, nay, a very much 
smaller, patch of the same crop, which was under the 
management of a private gardener, one of those very 
knowing suburban prowlers calling themselves gar¬ 
deners, who, if he choose, could have had as much 
manure for his purpose as the market-gardener had, but 
did not, and this patch we very much fear will never 
produce a Cos Lettuce at all without being replanted. 
And so it is with the high cultivation practised by the 
London market-gardeners, that they are enabled, notwith¬ 
standing the very unseasonable and backward summer 
weather we now have, to produce, even now, vegetables 
i of fair and good quality. The market, therefore, is 
well supplied, that is for the season. Greens are from 
| 2s. Gd. to 3s. 6d. per dozen bunches. Broccoli 2s. to 
4s. per dozen. Celery 9d. to is. per bundle. Turnips 
3s. to 4s. per dozen bunches. Radishes Ls. to Is. Gd. 
per dozen bunches. Lettuce from Is. to ls. Gd. per 
dozen. Spinach 2 s. Gd. per sieve. Cucumbers fid. to 2s. 
each, of very varied size and quality. Rhubarb abun¬ 
dant at Gd. to Is. per bundle. Sea-kale 2s. Gd. per 
basket. Asparagus 5s. to LUs. per bundle. Forced 
Potatoes ls. to 2s. per pound. Fruit is very much the 
same as we quoted last week, except Strawberries, which, 
of course, are lower in price as the supply increases; 
they are now making from Gd. to ls. per ounce. The 
Flowers are very abundant, and are of the same 
description as we have noticed in former reports.— H. 
PLANTING AN ORCHARD OR FRUIT GARDEN. 
{Continued from page 78.) 
I must now turn from the orchard for awhile to the 
kitchen-garden possessing a wall; and it will be well to 
take into consideration the mode of furnishing the latter, 
both as regards kinds, with their disposition, and the 
formation of stations: the latter being a most important 
proceeding, for many reasons. 
By formation of stations , I mean such a mode of 
preparing proper soil for the trees as shall prove 
economical as to the use of composts, insure success, 
and afford every facility to the root-pruner, if his opera¬ 
tions are needed. 
It was by no means an uncommon practice, in bygone 
years, to pave under the roots of trees, and to introduce fer¬ 
tile composts; but this practice had fallen into comparative 
disuse; and such a desire for progress existed in the 
gardening world, that people, in their ardour, overshot 
tiie mark, and pushing the idea as far as they were 
able, took to making deep borders, in a wholesale way, 
out of the plunder of the paddock. Now, I should have 
no objection to be possessed of a border, some three feet 
deep, in a rich loam thus obtained ; but 1 really should 
not like, as the possessor of a rich field, to have it thus 
injured—It is paying too dear for the object in view. 
Before proceeding to appropriate the ground to the 
necessary quantity of fruit-trees, I may as well explain 
the mode of making stations for them. Very few gardens 
have a natural soil so bad as not to be qualified at least 
to mix with some good loamy material. In some cases, 
one-half of the natural soil may be worked up in the 
stations; in some, only a third, whilst others are so good 
as to do entirely without any more fertile addition. 
It has been repeatedly stated in these pages that all 
fruit-trees are most successfully cultivated in a sound, 
loamy soil, but as many of our readers have not a just 
conception of what constitutes a loam in the gardener’s 
estimation, 1 may hero explain it. Loams are not dis¬ 
tinguished by colour alone, although the very best kinds 
are generally of a yellowish-hazel colour; indeed, the 
latter term has been applied to our best loams, by 
common consent, for a century or two. I have, how¬ 
ever, met with excellent loams which were almost 
yellow, and others as near to red; indeed, some of our 
best agricultural loams are exceedingly high-coloured, 
and commonly called “ red earth.” But it is the requisite 
adhesive quality which fruit-trees most desire. We seldom 
find them to succeed in a soil so loose that it cannot 
be made to cohere; the addition of manorial matters 
cannot compensate for the want of this coherent quality. 
But there are extremes to be avoided in this matter ; a 
loose, sandy material, not capable of coherence, and an 
almost indivisible clay, are equally to be avoided. A 
good fruit-tree loam, in a tolerably moist state, will readily J 
