50 



JOUKNAIi OF HOETICULTDKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB, 



[ Jnuuary IC, 18€8. 



-9 M- 



on each side. A 9-inch wall will need an 18-inch base, a 

 14-inch wall one of '2'2! inches, and an 18-inch wall a base of 

 27 inches. When the ground is very firm, one-half of the 

 above breadths of base will do ; but in places where stone 

 is procurable the base may be of that material, commencing 

 with the width of base required for the wall, and battering 

 both sides of the wall upwards, so that at the ground level the 

 thickness will be that of the wall to be built. This is a great 

 saving of bricks, and affords a foundation quite as substantial 

 as these, if not more so. Stone, however, cannot always be 

 had, or its costliness is an objection to its use. 



Fir/s. 1, 2, and .') are sections showing different modes of 

 forming the foundations of garden walls. 



It will not be necessary to give further sections, as it will be 

 evident from those given, that the foun- 

 dation or base should project i^ inches 

 beyond both faces of the wall whatever its 

 thickness may be. In some cases, as where 

 the ground is soft, a wider base may be desir- 

 able ; then the base may be twice the thick- 

 ness of the wall, diminishing the width by 

 equal steps on both sides, each step or " set- 

 on " not exceeding 2; inches. 



Sometimes stone is plentiful, but not of 

 a description suitable for forming a good 

 face or convenient courses for training. To 

 economise bricks, I have seen walls with 

 stone bases to the ground line, and the less 

 important side of the wall built of stone, the 

 other being cased with 4! -inch brickwork, l'^ 'S./JW/f ". — 

 and they were very substantial. The bricks Fig. i. — Section of 

 (headers), should be well bonded with the ab-incbWaUwith- 

 stoue, and the stone with the bricks. »"' Piers. 



Stone walls are necessarily of greater thickness than those 

 of brick, and it is customary to incline them upwards on both 

 sides so as to be wider at the base than the top ; for instance, 



-if:wcHF.s. 



IV.I'V 



<-s.iri'->-i 



1 T 





J_T 



-r 



22.J inches. ~^i 



Fig. 2. — Section of a 9-inch Wall throngh Pier, the dotted upright line 



showing the line of 0-inch wall. 



Fig. 3. — Section of 18-iacU Wall, with a stone base from foundation 



to the ground line. 



a wall C feet G inches high is made 20 inches thick at the 

 bottom, and rc-iluced to I'i inches thick at the top ; one 10 feet 

 high is made '24 inches thick at the bottom, and reduced to 

 IG inches at top. A stone wall from 12 to 15 feet in height 

 needs a base of 28 inches. 



I have not noticed beaded and other descriptions of bricks 

 by which it is .mid that the necessity for nailing is obviated. 

 My experience of them is very limited, and I am not prepared 

 to give an opinion, only I do not like their projecting and 

 affording an uneven instead of a plane surface. The process 

 of tying, also, is more tedious than that of nailing. 



I may here likewise state, that there is no objeclioa to a 

 stoneiwall, however uneven th.? courses, provided it be covered 

 with a trellis of No. 10 galvanised iron wire. The wires should 

 be fixed horizontally, from ! to 4J inches apart, being passed 

 tbrougli holdfasts entering the wall about 2 inches, and pro- 

 jecting from threo-quartors of an inch to an inch, bo that the 

 wii'es may be about half an inch from the wall. There must be 

 an iron plate nt each eud of the wall, through small projecting 



eyes in which the wires can be run and fastened, straining 

 them at one or both ends according to the length of the wall. 

 The plates, therefore, ought to be made secure to the wall, 

 and to maintain the wires equidistant the holdfasts should 

 be put in 3 feet apart, or as near that distance as the joints in 

 the wall will permit. The appearance is good, the trees thrive 

 well against the trellis, the wall is not damaged by nailing, and 

 the wires are very durable. I know some iron trellises which 

 have been fixed nearly half a century, and are still almost as 

 good aa ever. Wood trellises are heavy, quite as expensive as 

 iron, and not half so durable. I have taken them away quite 

 useless not twenty years after they had been erected. 



In constructing garden walls, good brick, or good durable 

 stones of a suitable thickness, are essential, and not less 

 important is good mortar in which to sot or lay them. The 

 quality and quantity of lime has a great influence on the firm- 

 ness of the work. Good lime, such as plasterers use for " run- 

 ning " to make "putty," is unquestionably the best for all 

 descriptions of brickwork, whilst for stone walls a hotter 

 description of lime will make better work. As to sand, it 

 should be sharp, in order to become hard when blended with 

 the lime, but for garden walls it may be too sharp ; hence river 

 sand is not good, nor pit sand approaching to gravel, but rather 

 sharp pit sand of a loamy nature. Two tons of sand and one 

 ton of lime make very good mortar, sotting sufficiently hard for 

 garden walls. Cement, or the adJition of any hard-setting 

 material should be avoided, as it is almost impossible to drive 

 nails into it. 



Not only should good materials be employed, but these must 

 be properly disposed in building. The work ought not only to 

 have an even or plane surface, be plumb, but the bricks should 

 be well bonded. There is no question that the Flemish bond is 



Fig. 4.— 9-inch Wall, Flemish bond. l3t course. 



preferable to English bond. In Flemish bond the headers, a, aro 

 laid alternately with the stretchers, h, in the Ist course (fin.i), 

 and in the 2nd course (fig. 5), where c is a stretcher and d a 



H" 



Fig. 5. — 9-inch WaU, Flemish bond. 2uJ course, 

 header; whilst in English bond (fins. G and 7), the courses are 

 alternately one of headers and another of stretchers through- 

 out, as c stretcher.s, f headers. Sometimes in English bond the 



Fig. v.— 9-inch Wall, Euglii^U bond. 2nd course, 

 headers, but the work is not so good as when the courses are 

 alternately headers and stretchers. 



To make good work of a Dincli wall, the bricks must be of 

 uniform size — usually 9 inches long by 4V inches in breadth, 



1 I 



Fig. B.— 11-inch Wall. Flemish bond. Ist coarse, 

 and scarcely 3 iuohes in thickness. If the bricks are fully 

 4i inches in breadth and scarcely 9 inches in length, no brick- 

 layer can make good work with a 9-inch wall, as the ."ftretcher 

 course will prove too wide for the header course ; hence the 

 surface will be in and out, and the joints irregular and bad. 

 In walls of greater thickness thf^n 9 inches, the irregularity in 



