1869.] NAILS VERSUS STUDS. 279 



culties trampled under our feet, before we are able to understand 

 and explain correctly how each ^j>(2rf/cM?ar cause acts individually, 

 and the whole collectively^ in order to produce the desired result. 

 Yet this is what every gardener should be able to do. If he in his 

 practice does nothing more than imitate others more skilled than him- 

 self — imitate their actions, without comprehending the principles that 

 govern them — if he does no more than this, he is not worthy of the 

 name of gardener. 



My advice to all young gardeners is, " Work and learn '' — learn prac- 

 tice, and also those laws or principles that govern it, and that ought in 

 every case to regulate it. 



In my next I intend to give, for the benefit of young and aspiring 

 gardeners, some information respecting gardeners' examinations, and 

 the " difficulties " to be contended with in order to obtain *•' certi- 

 ficates of merit." Up to the present time but few have troubled to 

 attend these emulating contests except from the public gardens near 

 the metropolis. F. W. B. 



NAILS VERSUS STUDS. 



It may not be inappropriate at the present season, when the subject is 

 being treated of at length in the ' Gardener,' to make a few remarks 

 on the materials in use for training wall-trees. This part of the 

 subject which I have chosen may no doubt appear to many to be 

 somewhat trivial, but nevertheless it is one which requires a little 

 consideration, as it involves a question of time and labour, two things 

 of which we cannot be too economical. On this very subject I have 

 many a time wondered how many far-seeing men, who are often just 

 hard enough pinched to make ends meet as regards labour, could 

 waste several months in getting done with the training of their wall- 

 fruit, when it might almost have been done in as many weeks. In 

 many establishments, and more particularly in the southern portion of 

 the kingdom, when the walls are being built, and while the mortar is 

 yet soft, studs are pushed into it with the lines of brick, at perhaps 

 a foot distant from each other, those in one line being alternate with 

 those in the next, and so on. Two reasons are generally assigned for 

 their use : first, as a preventive against harbouring insect-vermin 

 about the trees ; and again, as having a more tidy appearance than 

 nails and shreds. I must confess that I am rather sceptical on both 

 points, at least so far as experience has hitherto taught me to believe ; 

 and on comparison of the two systems, I should without hesitation 

 give my vote in favour of the nails. In the first place, the studs put 



