CULTURE OF FRUIT TREES. TRAINING. 31 



it may have only a few branches well placed for training 

 into a fan-like shape. JFor espaliers, trees of similar 

 growth must be chosen to those intended for training 

 on walls. As a border to the paths in fruit gardens, 

 they take less room than standards, and so are some- 

 times valuable in small gardens. The training, too, en- 

 courages productiveness and keeps them conveniently 

 within reach for culture and for gathering the fruit. 

 Iron hurdles are used by some cultivators for training- 

 espaliers. They may be bought six feet long, and three 

 feet high, with five bars, and weighing about 36 Ibs. 

 each, for 4s. (5d. each ; those of stronger make would 

 of course be more in proportion. Wooden ones, al- 

 though less lasting, may be made tolerably permanent 

 by fixing upright stakes, to remain, of oak or larch. 

 These should be as near each other as two or three feet 

 apart, and horizontal bars of a less lasting and less ex- 

 pensive kind can be used, and renewed when necessary. 

 A few intermediate uprights may be wanted just until 

 the trees gain stability. 



Table trellises are trellises fixed horizontally about 

 half a yard from the ground. Arched trellis, a kind of 

 arcade of wire, for training trees over, and some for 

 single trees, in form like an umbrella, are fanciful and 

 pretty. 



Good trellises for currants may be made very simply 

 of stout laths fixed in a large trellis pattern, meeting or 

 crossing only at the top, bottom, and in the middle ; 

 they are very convenient for covering the trees to 

 preserve the fruit. Standard trees are those, as their 

 name implies, which are grown to stand out without 

 support from wall or trellis. Full standards are up- 

 growing tall trees, generally several feet high in the 

 trunk, before the branches divide to form a head. Half 

 standards are standards the trunks of which are only 

 two or three feet high before the spreading of the head. 

 Dwarf standards are trees which are of a dwarf habit of 

 growth, and they are by far the most advantageous kind 

 for garden culture, as they are quite within reach, for the 

 best culture, and for gathering the fruit, The dwarf 



