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strengthened with stays. Bars of iron perforated, flat, 

 and light, 6 or 7 feet apart, should keep the wires in 

 position. The lowest wire should be about 1 8 inches 

 from the ground, the wires above at least 12 inches 

 apart. Six feet is a sufficient height for the top wire. 

 Otherwise the garden is shaded and the trees require a 

 ladder. Oak posts 7 to 8 feet long, 4 to 5 inches 

 through, tarred or charred at the bottom, are perhaps 

 cheaper at first. These also require stays. In three 

 or four years the wires are almost covered, and good 

 crops in a fine season follow. Leave openings at 

 intervals for gardeners to go through. 



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(with a cordon on each) may also be formed over paths 

 and wires stretched from one to another. But beware of 

 bringing them very near to each other. Sun and air 

 are essential to success. A shoot allowed to run along 

 a high horizontal wire will often bear fine fruit. Walls 

 too should be covered with cordons rather than hori- 

 zontals. Double the crop is often secured in half the 

 time. Visitors to the Chiswick Gardens of the R.H.S. 

 may see a large number on a high wall bearing in a 

 hot gravelly soil good fruit. The treatment of all such 

 trees is simple. If against a wall and on light soil, they 

 must be fed well. Stable manure should be given in 

 the autumn and left to decay ; liquid manure when the 

 fr sit begins to swell. Summer prune in July, pinching 

 or cutting new growths back to the sixth leaf, reducing 

 these in autumn to two or three eyes, but leaving fruit 

 buds untouched. Root prune when necessary in late 

 October or November. In winter, look over the trees, 

 see that all are tied properly, reduce with a small saw 

 any large lumps of wood formed in the course of years, 

 and prepare the trees for spraying or washing. 



