CONSIDERING that the success of garden culture so very much depends on soil and position, the choice of a site on which to make a garden is of the very first importance. The quality and supply of fruits and vegetables, as well as the amount of satisfaction and pleasure derivable from all that is connected with a garden, continue in most cases to be either injuriously or favourably affected for generations by the want or the application of forethought in connection with the recognition of natural laws in coming to a decision as to where, on any given domain or property, the garden should be placed. Yet it is a notorious fact that some of the greatest and most prominent garden establishments in the kingdom have been constructed on the very worst sites that could possibly be selected on the estates to which they belong. Indeed, so much is this the case, that had those who made choice of such sites been ruled by something like - shall we say - the perverse idea of providing the gardener with the worst soils and climate that a locality can offer, and therefore of necessity with as many natural difficulties to combat as possible, they could not have been more successful.

To illustrate the force of this statement, it is only necessary to instance a few places, where it might have been expected that a thorough knowledge and recognition of how very much depends on whether one of two sites not many hundred yards apart should be chosen, and where, notwithstanding, the greatest possible blunders have been glaringly committed. Look, for instance, at Chats worth kitchen-gardens and forcing - houses. They are set down on a site little better than a swamp, barely above the level of the Derwent river, in the lowest part of what may be termed a basin, where late and early frosts and dismal fogs prevail, and play sad havoc with tender crops outdoors, and where, in the forcing-house, the stoker has to contend with the coldest air of the district. The uplands around this site might have afforded superior positions in every respect. Another instance is that of Drumlanrig Gardens, which are formed on what is the lowest spot of a vast basin. They are nearly on a level with the Nith, which, when in flood, floods the stokeholes. The soil is a heavy, cold, clayey one, lying on the cold whinstone formation. Early and late frosts are most destructive to all fruits and vegetables, and anything like a kindly growth does not commence till the longest day.

And the difference between the temperature of this damp flat, and grounds immediately surrounding it on higher and drier levels, is very marked. This state of things has been arranged while plenty of good sites could have been chosen higher and warmer, with more genial and workable soils, and on the warm red sandstone formation, where tender things flourish long after they are cut down on the flat cold land by the river-side. Then, again, there are the Horticultural Gardens at Chiswick, placed in one of the worst sites for biting frosts and raw fogs that the valley of the Thames affords. We might go on to enumerate other garden establishments, which, with something like the most perverse blundering, have been placed on the most unfortunate and undesirable sites, where the result invariably is, that, from the prevalence of frosts and damp air, Potatoes and other tender things are often cut down two or three times in May, while those in the gardens of the cottage not very far removed, but in more elevated positions, escape.

Fruit-blossom of course shares the same fate, and such things as French Beans are cut down in early autumn, when just coming to their best, but on the high and dry hillside continue their yield until October.

Temperature at Drumlanrig Gardens From May 1 To May 20

It may safely be said, from the experience of many generations, that the lowest part of an estate, however small, should never be selected for the site of a garden, and that the higher positions should be chosen, unless some very serious reasons can be urged against such an arrangement. It is scarcely necessary to point out the chief reasons for preferring the higher to the lowest site that is at command for the formation of a garden. It is well known that the cold air rolls down into the valleys, and that fogs envelop vegetation most frequently there; and that is enough to account for the damage which vegetables and fruits sustain in valleys, while the uplands escape. It has also occurred to us of late, that the propriety of enclosing a garden with walls so that it shall have an aspect due south is open to question. It is a well-known fact that late springs are more generally followed by heavy crops of fruits than are very early ones, and for the simple reason that the blossom, being later, escapes the late spring frosts; and also that fruit-trees that are not so early exposed to the morning sun, on that account are not so susceptible of injury from frosts. These two circumstances would suggest that the aspect of walled gardens should be south-west, instead of due south.

This would prevent so early an exposure to sun after frost in the case of the greater portion of the walls at least. Moreover, they would get the full sun for a longer time in the after-part of the day, and more especially in late summer and autumn, when sun is most required to ripen the fruit and mature the wood for another year's crop. It is certainly of importance that trees that cannot be thoroughly protected should not be too forward in early spring, should not be exposed early to full sun after a pinching frost, and that they should be well ripened in autumn; and the aspect most likely to assist in this must be of great consequence, and a subject worthy of discussion.