54. Hitherto nothing has been said of the situation of the range of hot-houses. In many gardens, these occupy a very considerable part of the south wall, that is, the wall on the north side of the garden. In the area behind them, are sheds for tanners bark, rich mould, and other re quisites ; while there is a cart access to the doors of the furnaces, and these, with all the rubbish necessarily at tending the operations of forcing, are completely hid from view. In some places all the forcing-houses form a con tinuous range ; but generally the pine stove and succes sion pit, being of different dimensions, are placed sepa rately In some elegant gardens, as at Raith-House and Wemyss-Castle in Fife, the hot-houses have a flower garden in front of them, while every thing offensive is excluded from view, as in the former case. In other places the hothouses are disposed in a different man ner : the several kinds of houses stand detached from one another, each being set down as it were in a separate grass lawn ; the back part, where the furnaces are situa ted, is concealed by shrubs, so that the houses seem to stand in little thickets, and thus form an agreeable variety with clumps and patches of trees in the park. Doni bristle, the seat of the Earl of Moray in Fife, may be men tioned as an example of this sort of arrangement.
55. In many instances, the flower garden is separated from the fruit and kitchen garden merely by a wall, per haps by a quick hedge. But in modern places, (as gar deners speak) this garden is removed from the other by a considerable distance. To it belongs the green-house and the orangery ; there is often connected with it a con servatory ; and sometimes, where the owner has a taste for the culture of rare plants, a stove merely for the keep ing of tender exotics.
Where the interior of the walled garden does not afford space enough for raising a sufficient supply of culinary vegetables for the family, a piece of ground is fenced off on the outside of the walls, on one or more sides, and is called the 8/0. If the melon and cucumber ground be not situated at the back of the principal suite of hot houses, it may very conveniently be placed in the slip.
Hedges.
56. For tall hedges, to afford additional shelter to par ticular quarters, or to screen objects from view, various evergreen plants are employed. Holly answers admirably, for height, strength, and thickness ; but it is of very slow growth, and flourishes only in clayey ground. Yew is also excellent, and much used. Several deciduous trees are likewise employed, such as lime, beech, and horn-beam. English elm is occasionally used ; and in wet places alder is justly preferred. In very large gardens a hedge of holly or beach, running from north to south, is of incalculable advantage, especially if the garden be in the form of a parallelogram, and much exposed to high winds. Small ornamental divisions in gardens are formed of many differ ent kinds of plants, according to the taste of the owner, and the size of the hedge wished for. Laurel, laurustinus,
phillyrea, and evergreen oak, are suited to this purpose ; as well as pyracantha, sea-purslane, rosemary, and French tamarisk ; the last two, however, will not form hedges un less in our southern counties, where the myrtle can with stand the cold of ordinary winters. But of all shrubs used for such division hedges, evergreen privet seems the best ; and it is the plant now most frequently employed for that purpose. Some persons are fond of flowering hedges : they are composed of different kinds of rose-bushes, sweet-briars, and honeysuckles ; the lately introduced Rosa Indica, making here a conspicuous appearance, be ing equally covered with flowers early and late in the year. Garden hedges of any kind are now much less frequently planted than they used to be. In our climate the fruit garden must be surrounded with brick or stone walls : these serve not merely for protecting the trees fixed against them, but supersede the necessity of tall hedges for the purpose of shelter. The flower-garden, however, is still chiefly sheltered by evergreen hedges, with rows of tall deciduous shrubs, or low-growing trees, behind. In some places these are situated on the declivity or talus of a bank, forming a highly ornamented screen, analogous to the brise-vent of the French. From the interior of this garden, however, hedges have been nearly banished, by the change of taste, and dislike of every thing formal.
In this country, as formerly remarked, the Fruit-garden and the Kitchen-garden are locally blended together, both being inclosed by the same walls: the objects of each, however, are quite distinct, and may conveniently be treat ed of separately. The general disposition of the departments of the garden has been already spoken of, and likewise the forming of fruit-tree borders. Other matters particularly connected with the fruit-garden shall now be considered.
3 Z 2 Stocks for Grafting.
58. When a cion, or part of a cion, is taken from a fruit-tree, and inserted either on a young stem, or on the bough of a full grown tree, it is called grafting. But in the former case a new or additional tree is procured ; and in this way, chiefly, apples and pears are propagated ; and sometimes plums and cherries. A good cion may gene rally be cut into two or three pieces, which are called grafts ; the stems on which they are placed being named stocks. The raising of stocks, and the propagation of fruit-trees, will properly fall under the article NURSERIES : a few explanatory observations in this place may therefore suffice. The subject isnot without interest; for every one, who wishes to keep his garden and orchard well supplied with fruit-trees, should establish U small private nursery, in which, upon stocks of different kinds, according to the end in view, he may graft or bud the kinds of fruit which ex perience spews to be best suited to the soil and climate of the place, and which best meet his own views.