September 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
313 
fruitfulness. The moisture that falls from the clouds 
loaded with air and fertilizing properties is, for such 
purposes, the best; and, when that is not sufficient, 
it becomes an easy matter to apply that which has 
been exposed to atmospheric influence. Tire great 
error committed in fruit-tree borders has arisen from 
the practice of treating a peach or a vine just as we 
would a carrot or a cabbage, or a mere forest-tree, 
where quickness of growth and luxuriance were the 
main objects aimed at. In their case, depth of soil, 
and even deeply stirring the subsoil, are of great im¬ 
portance, because not only is a free scope given to 
the roots, hut in wet seasons they will not be flooded, 
and in dry seasons they will not be parched. In 
borders, say for vines treated in a similar manner, 
you will often obtain rods like good walking-sticks 
and leaves like parasols, but the fruit is not unfre- 
quently small and badly coloured. 
From vines in shallower borders, with wood and 
leaves half the size, you will obtain superior fruit. 
Why the difference? In the one case there was 
more growth than could be thoroughly matured, in 
the other the juices were all highly elaborated; in 
the one case the wood when cut was soft and some¬ 
what pithy, in the other it was like heart of oak. 
We do not like to see great luxuriance in our peach- 
trees, but we are all rather fond of strong wood in 
our vines, as the finer the shoots, and the larger the 
leaves, the finer we should expect the future crop to 
be, provided the elaborating of the juices of the 
plant were perfectly completed: without that the 
luxuriance is of no advantage. To secure that luxu¬ 
riance, and yet at the same time to command the 
perfect ripening of the wood, the roots must be kept 
within atmospheric influence, and then by surface 
dressings and liquid manure you may command what 
strength of growth you require. Do not misunder¬ 
stand us, however : the bottom of your border must 
be doping, not flat; it must have a natural drain of 
open rubble all over it, communicating with a good 
drain in front. Without these adjuncts we advise 
you to leave bottoming alone. I have had to do with 
bottomed borders little better than receptacles of 
water and mud, by their being made flat, and without 
sufficient drainage. If you do not mean to do all 
this, then the best thing will be to follow the advice 
of the opponents of “ bottoming,” by making and 
contenting yourself with good drains. For general 
purposes, a depth of two feet of good turfy soil will be 
rather more than a fair average. For peaches less 
will do, and without manure. Vines should have an 
addition of lime rubbish, free-stone, &c., to keep the 
soil open. The best incorporated manure is rough 
broken bones. Provided the soil is open, and the 
drainage good, strength, by the help of manure water, 
can be obtained at any time. 
We only meant to say a few words, but the matter 
would easily amplify into pages. One thing in par¬ 
ticular let me caution you against, and you must think 
of it while building your walls: do not sink, but raise, 
your outside borders as much as possible above the 
surrounding level. Get as much fresh uncropped 
top-spit soil as you can, and, if not sufficient, reserve 
a part of the best of the natural soil of the place; 
hut, in order to do this, do not sink a great gidly-hole, 
as if you were going to make a large tank for the 
holding of water. Every spade fid of earth and clay 
you remove unnecessarily for this purpose is worse 
than labour lost. Make all but the best part of the 
natural soil (and that we should not care about mix¬ 
ing, if it can be done without) subservient to giving 
the bottom of your border the necessaiy slope ; in it 
form your drains, as deep as you please, and then 
upon this place your rubble and prepared soil. Thus, 
though you cannot obviate the necessity of wheeling 
in, you will avoid the greater labour of digging, 
picking, and wheeling out. “ Ah ! very nice indeed; 
but, then, Mr. Fish, see the additional expense I 
must be put to in raising my walls several courses 
of bricks higher, in order to enable you to raise this 
nicely sloping border; and then there is my neigh¬ 
bour, Mr. Fine-taste, who will criticise me unmerci¬ 
fully if I should have a brick above a certain height, 
so as to he seen at all from a certain window, and 
pronounce my house, about which you and I are 
taking counsel, as a great, gawky, staring thing.” 1 
reply: first, what is worth doing at all is worth, doing 
well; we tried to do well in our younger days, but 
then we did not know as now how to do it. Secondly, 
the course we advise will be the cheapest in the end ; 
nay, we question whether the raising of the additional 
brickwork would not be cheaper at first than remov¬ 
ing such a quantity of stiff or gravelly soil. Thirdly, 
practice demonstrates its importance: doubters should 
have a trial of some of the tank-like borders some 
of us have to contrive to manage. Fourthly, if there 
is a really valid objection to raising the wall, you 
may yet do much by lessening the width of the 
house, when less height would be necessary, and the 
border might rise to the front wall-plate. Anfi, fifthly, 
as to Mr. Fine-taste, yield your own judgment to no 
man; but unless your own taste (informed, of course), 
and your own good strong common sense, see reasons 
incontrovertible in what he urges, smile at his well- 
intentioned learned criticism, and tell him in turn 
that wherever utility and fitness for a given object 
are so plainly perceptible as to require no explana¬ 
tions, there the taste developed cannot be bad. 
R, Fish. 
THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 
Cabbage Plants. —The earliest and best varieties 
should now be put out in succession for early spring 
use. The ground should be prepared by a liberal 
application of good manure, and well trenched; if 
ridged into sloping banks, as before recommended, so 
much the better: the ridges may be left as rough as 
possible, and the young plants which were sown at 
the proper season for spring cabbages may be planted 
at the intended distance on the sides of the ridges, 
and the intervals filled up with strong colewort plants, 
to be drawn out as they become ready for use through¬ 
out the winter. 
Cauliflowers. —Sow full crops of this vegetable, 
so that the requisite quantity of plants to stand the 
winter for spring planting may be secured. 
Watercress. —Those who are enabled to cultivate 
the watercress, should now, if a new bed is to be made, 
clear away all the rubbish from the spot selected, and 
replant. Where the watercress is already established, 
and has been well gathered from, a part of the bed 
should be well cleared out, saving all the strongest 
and best plants to replant again after all the weed, 
rubbish, and muddy refuse have been taken away. 
The beds should, if possible, be established where 
good fresh water is at all times running through 
them. 
Lettuces. —Prick out and transplant as fast as 
the seed bed requires thinning, taking care, these 
moist mild evenings, to place some baits of new 
brewers’ grains, or new bran in small quantities, to 
entice the slugs together, so that they may be dealt 
with according to the garden laws. Our custom is 
