INTRODUCTION, 
vii 
The height and closeness of the fence will increase the vegetation 
by increasing the warmth of the air in the garden, excepting^ 
perhaps, the parts which are shaded by the fences. The rage of 
high winds will be so opposed as to prevent the tearing and dis¬ 
torting of tender plants, and fowls may be more easily kept out. 
The height of walls for training fruit trees, generally approved, 
is from ten to twelve feet; but it is more commonly determined 
by the size and form of the garden, and the inclination of its 
surface. 44 Many low walls, or stout ranges of paling,” Aber¬ 
crombie observes, “ will produce a greater total effect, in accel¬ 
erating fruit, than the same expenditure in high walls.” 44 Fruit 
walls, five or six feet high, Hitt remarks, 44 will do very well for 
peaches, cherries, vines, and figs; but he would not advise the 
planting of apricots, plums, or pears, on such walls, they 
requiring more room, and to stand longer before they bear. 
Garden walls have been colored white or black, and the latter 
color is justly preferred as absorbing and refracting more heat 
than any other, and thereby accelerating the maturity, and im¬ 
proving the quality of fruits.” 
A copious supply of water is very essential to a good kitchen 
garden. Loudon remarks, that 44 Many kitchen crops are lost, 
or produced of very inferior quality, for want of watering. 
Lettuces and cabbages are often hard and stringy ; turnips and 
radishes do not swell; onions decay ; cauliflowers die off; and, 
in general, in dry seasons, all the crucifereoe become stinted or 
covered with insects, even in rich, deep soils. Copious waterings 
in the evenings, during the dry seasons, would produce that 
fullness and succulency which we find in the vegetables produced 
in the Low Countries, and in the Marsh Gardens at Paris, and 
in England at the beginning and latter end of the season. 
Vegetables that are newly transplanted, as they have their 
roots more or less diminished, or otherwise injured, often need 
watering, until they have taken new root. But this should be 
done with caution. If a dry season follow the transplanting, let 
them be watered, if they appear to droop, only at evenings, and 
