154 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICTJLTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ February 20, 1868. 



would be fonnd preferable to the small cordons for the sides 

 of borders in the kitchen garden. Three larch poles were 

 driven into the ground, and at about 4 feet high the tops were 



sawn off level, and a piece nailed 

 on, as in fin. 1. The Pear and 

 Apple trees were planted at the 

 middle stake and trained up 

 with one stem to the top, and 

 then stopped. In the spring 

 and summer three branches 

 were trained down the stakes 

 and tied by willows, and the 

 side shoots pinched-in to form 

 fruit buds. When planted in 

 rows about 18 inches from the 

 Box edging this line of trees 

 looked very neat, and shaded 

 nothing in the borders. The 

 Pears were on the Quince stock, 

 and the Apples on the I'aradise, 

 and all bore good crops of fruit 

 in favourable summers. I have 

 since used manv of these little 



Fig. 1. 



Fig.i 



Pear trees to plant on the square pillars in the new kitchen 

 garden, where they are trained as in jig. 2. 



There is no finer sight in a kitchen garden than a long range 

 of walls well covered with fan-trained trees of Pears, Cherries, 

 Plums, and Apricots. Perhaps for low walls, trees trained 

 horizontally are the best adapted, and on dwarf-growing stocks. 

 As there is such a rage at the present time about training fruit 

 trees, allow me to conclude with the following triplet in rhyme, 

 which I think is particularly adapted for the subject : — 



— W. T. 



' How strange that such a difference should be 

 'Tween tweedle dum and tweedle dee, 

 In naming, pruning, and training a tree." 



STRAINING WIRES FOR DIAGONAL CORDONS. 



Foe a length of 100 feet of diagonal cordon wires, the two 

 end posts should be of stout oak about 4 feet out of the ground, 

 and sunk to a depth of 2 feet, 

 strongly supported by an auxihary 

 stud as' iu ihe accompanying re- 

 presentation. Midway between 

 these two straining pests another 

 stout oak post should be put in, 

 to give strength and solidity, and 

 at intervals of 7 or S feet light 

 iron supports are necessary to 

 keep the wires in position. 



For posts 4 feet high three rows 

 of wires only are really necessary, 

 and these should be placed 1 foot 

 from each other, the lowest being 

 2 feet from the ground line ; but 

 a fourth wire 18 inches from the 

 surface of the soil may be added 

 with considerable advantage to the planter. This supplementary 

 wire will sustain bilateral or double cordons without any pre- 

 judice to the diagonal cordons. They should not, however, be 

 planted in the same row, but inserted at intervals on the oppo- 

 site side. 



A space of gronnd 100 feet by 6 feet will hold three rows of 

 straining wires for diagonal cordons ; and the distance between 

 each being 3 feet, a sufficient space is afforded for the passage 

 of an ordinary-sized wheelbarrow, which is required for the 

 purpose of surface-dressing the trees in spring and autumn. 

 The number of trees which can be successfully planted as 

 diagonal cordons would appear to an old-fashioned planter 

 incredible and absurd ; 300 feet of wire will hold 1.50, and a 

 supplementary row of bilateral cordons. Supposing that dwarf 

 Pear trees on"the Quince stock one year old are planted, the 

 produce wUl be gathered the second year after planting ; and 

 if the season is favourable each tree will at this early period 

 average one dozen fruit each of very fine quality — not a bad 

 return for good cultivation. 



I ventured daring the summer of last year to write a short 

 letter to the rimes, which the Editor did me the honour to 

 publish, pointing out that fruit trees might be planted by the 

 thousand in spaces of ground now given up to hundreds ; but 

 in this letter I suggested the planting of pyramidal trees on a 

 arge scale, and I did not allude to cordon trees for gardens. 



Your readers can calculate the number of diagonal cordons 

 which may be planted per acre in rows :> feet apart, and 2 feet 

 tree from tree in a row. I do not, of course, suggest the advi- 

 sability of covering acres of ground with training wires; but I 

 think the system may be adopted by, and will prove very pro- 

 fitable to, many a small market gardener iu the neighbourhood 

 of large towns who cannot afford the ground requisite for plant- 

 ing pyramids, and who will find that by exerci.se of judgment 

 ia selecting the positions, and care in cultivation, unproductive 

 borders may be made to contribute their share to the returns, 

 of the year. — T. Francis Eiver?. 



W.VLL COPING 

 As you say that you wish correspondents to give their expe- 

 rience of wail copings, 1 beg to send you a slight sketch {Jiij. 1), 



and section {jifj. 2), of a wall coping that my father put on his 



wall some years since. As he 



could never depend on having 



any Peaches before it was done 



(the wall being raised at the 



same time), and now with the 



aid of a wash painted on the 



trees in March, he never fails 



in having a plentiful crop, it 



is, I think, worth while to draw 



your attention to it. 



The wall is 12 feet high, 

 and is roofed with Bridge- 

 water tiles resting on a rafter 

 running parallel with the wall, 

 and supported on brackets 

 built into the wall as shown 

 in the section. The projec- 

 tion of the roof is 10 inches. 

 The wall is wired, and the 

 shoots are always tied with 

 the Golden Willow. This 

 plan certainly has the advan- 

 tage of keeping the wall very 



Fig. 



sound and affording no harbour for insects, as is the case in 

 the old nail holes, where nails are used. The crop of Peaches 

 last year, when in this neighbourhood there were a good many 

 failures, was a perfect sight. 



I may also add in reference to the subject brought forward 

 by your correspondent " H. B.,'' in page 414 of the last volume, 

 that we fence round young trees in the plantations with short 

 pieces of Elder stuck into the ground to prevent them being 

 injured by rabbits, and the plan has been found very success- 

 ful. — A Somersetshire Parson. 



WORK FOR THE WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Broad Beans, as soon as the plants of the early crop appear 

 above ground the soil should be carefully ridged-up round 

 them, and branches of evergreens stuck in rather thickly on. 



