528 



THE GARDENER. 



[Nov. 



WIRING WALLS FOR TRAINING FRUIT-TREES. 



It is surprising how pertinaciously the old system of training wall-trees with 

 nails and shreds has been adhered to. In this respect, speaking generally, we are 

 no further advanced than our great grandfathei-s. The nail-aud-shred system has 

 little or nothing to recommend it. It destroys the best-built walls, creates un- 

 limited breeding and hiding places for vermin that are injurious to both trees 

 and fruit ; and the same may be said of the shreds themselves, while the nails 

 very often prove injurious to the wood and the fruit if not most narrowly watched. 

 The work of nailing is one of the most tedious and trying that the gardener has to 

 perform. Indeed, we do not know what to say in its favour. In some cases, 

 where nailing has been departed from, the system of driving studs into the walls 

 has been adopted ; but if an improvement at all, it is a very slight one. We are 

 happy to see that in some of the best-arranged new gardens the reasonable, better- 

 looking, and much easier method of wiring the walls at once is being adopted. 

 Once done, there is no incessant knocking in and drawing out of nails, to the ruin 

 of garden-walls. Trees are much easier cleaned when infested with insects. A 

 circulation of air is allowed about the foliage and fruit, and the work of tying is 

 much easier and pleasanter than nailing. Judging from the vigorous way in 

 which these fittings, as well as espaliers of the same material, are being advertised, 

 it is to be hoped the system will soon be generally adopted. 



M'LACHLAN'S NEW PATENT VERGE-CUTTER. 



Is it not surprising 

 garden implements ] 



that so little that is new or improved has been added to 

 With the exception of the mowing-machine, and perhaps 

 Park's steel fork, garden implements remain very much as 

 they were in the time of our great-grandfathers. We all 

 the more heartily welcome this new edging-cutter, invented 

 and patented by Mr M'Lachlan, Dungourney Gardens, near 

 Greenock, and consider it a vast improvement, in every 

 respect, on the old edging-tool. It has received several first- 

 class certificates. As will be seen from our engraving, the 

 machine consists of a small iron frame, which is set on a 

 couple of I'ollers, and has fixed at the right side a knife of 

 about 6 inches long, the point of which is turned in as a 

 sole. This blade is fixed by means of a screw, and can be 

 set in an instant so as to cut verges from 1 inch to 6 inches 

 deep, while the sole part of the knife detaches from the base 

 the portion of edging detached from 

 the side of the walk, thus doing 

 with one action the work which re- 

 quires an edging-tool and a Dutch 

 hoe. This piece of simple mechan- 

 ism is fitted to a wooden handle, 6 

 feet long, and the instrument is 

 worked by the same sort of action 

 ^ required for Dutch hoeing. We 



have used this machine with our own hands, and find it very easily worked, and 

 that it makes a very speedy and superior job. Mr IM'Lachlan recently had a pub- 

 lic trial of his invention, but the competitor with the old edging-tool soon gave 



