OLD WALL-TREES. 389 



Dr. Scoffern's work on the Chemistry of Soils, recently published, gives very 

 useful information on this poiat. 



§ 1.— Old Garden-Walls. 



1 140. Troublesome things to a gardener are old garden- walls, where years 

 of nailing have loosened the mortar-joints, and left even the bricks full of 

 :holes ; but they are even more troublesome as harbours of refuge for insects 

 and all sorts of garden pests. When garden-walls get into this state, the first 

 convenient opportunity should be taken for thorough cleansing and repair. 

 In autumn, after the fruit is gathered, or in eai-ly spring, the weathti- being 

 dry but not frosty, let every tree be unnailed, the branches tied carefully 

 together with hay-bands to prevent injury from the wind, and the stem of each 

 tree drawn gently away from the wall as far as can conveniently be managed 

 ^without injury to the roots, and kept there by means of a rope placed round it 

 about two-thirds of its height, which rope can be made fast by a stake driven 

 round the border, at a little distance from the stem. The wall, being cleared, 

 should be scraped to remove all moss and every kind of parasite that may be 

 growing upon it. After this, if the weather be quite dry at the time, it will be 

 found a very good plan to give the wall a thorough dressing with very thin size, 

 put on boiling hot with a large plastering-brush : this will effectually destroy 

 all larvae and eggs of insects that may remain after scraping. The wall can now 

 'be pointed in the usual way, using either cement or mortar made of newly- 

 slaked lime and river-sand, great care being taken that all the old loose 

 mortar in the joints is removed ; otherwisethenew jointing will not bear the 

 nailing to which it is to be subjected. 



§ 2.— Old Wall-Trees. 



1 141. How frequently do we find the inheritor of an old garden praising 

 "loudly by-gone times in reference to some noble pear-tree against a wall, or 

 covering perhaps one whole side of his house, calling to mind the bushels of 

 fruit borne by it when he was a boy, and lamenting its present diminished 

 produce. What is to be done with it ? is the inquiry. The tree is, to all 

 appearance, full of vigour, and it would be a shame to cut it down ; besides, 

 it must take years for another to fill up the space it occupies. Perhaps, also, 

 there is some little fruit on it each year, though nothing to what a tree of the 

 size ought to produce, for the centre never has a single pear or blossom-bud 

 iipon it. Look to nature ! is the only answer to be made to one so inquiring ; 

 and you will find that all the fruit and all the blossom of the fine old pear-tree 

 is upon the young wood, at the extremities of its branches. The case is clear, 

 then : young wood must be encouraged, and old wood got rid of. Let any 

 one try the following plan, and he will not be disappointed. Cut out, a 

 pruning-time, all the lateral branches within one eye of the stem ; but, is 

 order to balance the tree, and give employment to the roots, let this be done 

 by degrees ; let every alternate lateral, on either side, be cut out each year ; 



