mediate valleys as little protected as a more open and apparently less protected position.

And it is needful to remark that the beautiful or the picturesque are not the only considerations to be taken into account in selecting a proper site for fruit and kitchen gardens. These desirable properties are more than counterbalanced by the disadvantages arising from a cold exposure and damp soil, which unfailingly render the crops of fruit and vegetables of inferior quality. The site to be sought for, and to be found if possible, is one with a good soil, a dry subsoil, and a sunny exposure, sheltered sufficiently, but not shaded. The ground should be level, or rather, perhaps, with a slight declivity towards the south. A northern exposure should be avoided: we would prefer even a considerable declivity to the south, though steep inclinations require more labour in cultivation than level surfaces.

A certain amount of shelter is indispensable to a good garden; and where this is not to be had, sites in other respects favourable are to be avoided. Some natural protection should be sought for, particularly when the place is destitute of old plantations. Shelter may certainly be obtained by judicious planting; but it is to be remembered that in exposed situations fifteen or twenty years may elapse before it becomes effective.

The Drainage of a garden should be perfect-certainly at least not inferior to that thorough draining now employed for agricultural purposes. To most horticultural operations a completely drained and therefore warm soil is essential: damp ground yields only inferior vegetables, and supports only diseased, short-lived, and unproductive trees, bearing ill-favoured fruit—a state of matters, however, not unfrequently seen in gardens of consider

able pretensions, though surrounded by well-drained fields. Why such evident negligence should be permitted or overlooked, it is hard to say.

Soil. It has been said above that the soil of a garden should be naturally good; perhaps, however, this property, which is by no means unimportant, should give way when necessary to the considerations formerly adverted to, and to a desirable position in the park. There are few situations in which good soils cannot be formed by artificial means; but there are some subsoils which cannot be sufficiently dried and warmed by any amount of drainage; and there are sometimes good soils whose accompanying disadvantages in site and position can scarcely be remedied or modified by any expedient. Gardens on such untractable sites may be seen on the level grounds by the sides of lakes or streams. In these the soil may be excellent, while the subsoil is incurably damp. There the late spring and early autumn frosts prevail to a greater extent than on the adjacent high grounds, and these may baffle the bestdirected efforts of the gardener. The crops of early vegetables are retarded, the blossom of the fruit-trees is often destroyed, or, when it escapes, it is followed by deformed and ill-ripened fruit. The proprietor of a garden, formed at considerable expense, is left with a deficient supply, and is mortified by the comparative abundance enjoyed by his neighbours, who have been more fortunate in the choice of a site. A good sound loamy soil is the most useful for general purposes. But if an artificial soil is to be formed, it will be found useful to have some variety-one compartment, for example, being composed of light sandy earth, and another of strong loam. Peaty and clayey soils are

objectionable: the former are feeble and cold; the latter, though productive, are late, with a damp uncomfortable look, and require additional labour.

Form. The form of the kitchen-garden, and the consequent arrangement of the walls which surround it, are usually determined by the nature of the ground, and by the extent of space enclosed. On all surfaces not deviating much from a level, the favourite configuration is a rectangular one, either a square or a parallelogram ; and in these forms the grounds can be laid out to the greatest advantage, with fewer walks, and with compartments most suitable to the culture of vegetables and the arrangement of fruit-trees. A number of other forms have been occasionally adopted, but without apparent benefit. For example, in order to diminish the expense incurred in erecting the walls, some have chosen the form of an octagon, or other polygon more nearly approaching the circle, it being well known that the circle contains the greatest space within the smallest perimeter. Among practical men there is an impression, which is probably well founded, that walls of a circular or polygonal configuration are more frequently and injuriously swept along by winds than those of the ordinary rectangular forms. Every ardent horticulturist wishes to have as much wall as possible with a southern aspect. Indeed such is the superiority of climate on these walls, that it is somewhat surprising that they are not more frequently multiplied by being built in the interior of gardens, running from east to west, as in the peachgardens in France. The massive, and therefore expensive, style in which garden-walls are commonly built in this country probably accounts for the neglect of so obvious an advantage. We would nevertheless recom

mend such intersectional walls of moderate height and slight construction to those who have a taste for fine fruit, and who are forming gardens on surfaces with a considerable slope towards the south.

The additional warmth afforded by walls is a matter of great importance, and is therefore generally taken into account, and is allowed due weight in regulating the form of gardens. The finer kinds of fruit-trees grown in the open air, and cultivated in the United Kingdom, require all the protection and aid which walls afford to trees trained on them, in order properly to mature their fruit. The position of walls has a material effect on the climate: that is the best in which the line of the wall is at right angles to the meridian of the place, giving one of the sides a directly south aspect, though, to suit the ground, one a few degrees east or west may be adopted without any appreciable difference in the warmth. The walls running south and north, or parallel to the meridian, and facing to the east and west, afford secondary climates; and walls in the intermediate directions have climates varying in excellence according as they approach to or diverge from the south. In the southern parts of the kingdom, where the climate is fine, this subject is of less importance than in the middle and northern districts. Even the difference of a single degree of latitude has a noticeable effect. In the neighbourhood of London, in latitude 51° 30′, peaches ripen on a south-east aspect; while at Edinburgh, latitude 56°, they require a south wall, a fine season, and other favourable circumstances, to arrive at maturity. When a large extent of wall, with a first-rate climate, is wanted, a parallelogram, with its longer sides facing towards the south, should be adopted,

and the southern aspect of the south wall should be made available by means of a piece of enclosed ground in front of it: when this is not an object of much consequence, a square, or some other more varied form, may be selected.

The Walls.-The height of the walls should have some proportion to the size of the garden. They may vary from eight to sixteen feet: below or above these heights they are neither convenient nor useful. For these walls, well-made and well-burnt bricks are certainly the best materials, being most kindly to the growth of trees, and affording the greatest facilities for training them. We have often, however, had walls erected in whole or in great part of stones; and when the stones were good, and kept down to a proper size, we have found the walls little inferior to those composed of brick. In good gardens a considerable portion of the best walls should be constructed with flues and furnaces, so that they may be artificially heated in spring and autumn-in spring to protect the blossom, and in autumn to aid in maturing the fruit, and what perhaps is of equal importance, to ripen the fruitbearing wood for the following year. We may add, though the remark perhaps belongs to practical horticulture, that in autumn artificial heat is often applied only during the night. This is improper; for light, a main agent in perfecting vegetable life, is then absent. When the fire-heat is employed during the day, it cooperates with the solar heat and light in the elaboration of the juices of the fruit and foliage, and its action may be equivalent to the reduction of several degrees from the latitude of the place. Good flues, with proper furnaces attached, have been found to be superior to hot