WALLS, ESPALIER-RAILS, AND TRELLIS-WORK. 148 



to which to affix the trees, that the system has been given up as use- 

 less and too expensive, and many have said that the old-fashioned 

 shred and nail are yet the best. But there is a very much better and 

 sounder way, and I am completely converted as to the value of the 

 French mode of wiring here illustrated. In the first instance, several 

 strong iron spikes are driven into the brickwork at the ends in the 

 right angle formed by two walls nails with eyes in them being driven 

 in in straight lines, exactly in the line of direction in which the wire 

 is wanted to pass. The wires are placed at about ten inches apart 

 on the walls, and the little hooks for their support, also galvanized, are 

 fixed at about ten feet apart along each wire. The exact distance 

 between the wires must, however, be determined by the kind of tree 

 and the form to be given to it. If horizontal training of the branches 

 be adopted, the wires had better be placed to form the lines which we 

 wish the branches to follow ; if the branches are vertical, as in fig. 

 115, we need not be so exact, The wire about as thick as strong 



Fig. 115. 



j- 



I 

 I 



I 



<M 



Mode of arranging wires on walls for training fruit-trees with vertical or 

 horizontal branches. A, Position of raidisseur ; B, Nails with eyes, 

 through which the wire is passed. 



twine is passed through the little hooks, fastened at both ends of the 

 wall into the strong iron nails, and then made as straight as a needle 

 and as tight as a drum, by being strained with the raidisseur. The 

 wires remain at about the distance of half an inch or three-quarters 

 from the wall. 



" If we consider the expense of the shreds and nails, the cutting of the 

 former, the destroying of the surface of the walls by the nails, and the 

 leaving of numerous holes for vermin to take refuge in ; the great 



