COLONIAL GARDENING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 65, 10 December 1907, Page 2

COLONIAL GARDENING.

A..USEFUL' HANDBOOK. ■ Mr. William Levy., of Waikumate, near Auckland, has' forwarded to us for review a handbook entitled .." Tirty-six Years' Experience in Colonial gardening; also Espalier and Wall Culture in Small Gardens. ■■' Mr. Levy is well-known in. the Auckland districts as a shrewd practical fruitgrower and uursoryman, - and the booklet which lie has produced bears out his -reputation. '.'lts chief value is for the owners of small gardens, who desire' to make the best possible use of tho small plot- of land available. Instructions are given for the l preparation o£ tho ground, the making of the subsoil drains so essential to good gardening,' manuring, planting, pruning, and the maiiy other dotails of garden,*work. The notes on espalier culturo of fruit, trees are/ perhaps, the most valuablo section of all, and .will well repay perusal by amateurs—and professionals too — who dosire to get tho greatest value obtainable from limited areas.. 4 Tho book is full of valuablo hints for the-growth pf.flovrers, vegetables, and fruit for homo or market. The failure of pear crops after, profuse blooming, as ho describes, we attribute, however, not to neglected culture, but nearly always to a fungus disease known as tho " black spot," which attacks the young fruit just as tho petals fall, and sweeps off practically the whole crop." A copper spray, .is the remedy'. In other respects,-, however, tho hook is exceedingly accurate, and, to the point. It is rare that one finds a man of tho soil writing with such lucidity, completeness, conciseness, and correctness; and the book—which apparently has been printed, for S3le at a moderate get intc many handsi