144 



WALLS, ESPALIER-RAILS, AND TRELLIS-WORK. 



annual labour of nailing, and the miserable work it is for men in our 

 cold winters and springs it will be freely admitted that a change is 

 wanted badly. The system of wiring a wall above described is simple, 

 cheap, almost everlasting, and excellent in every particular : and it 

 must before many years elapse be nearly universally adopted in our 

 fruit-gardens. A man may do as much work in one day along a wall 

 wired thus as he could in six with the old nail and shred. As to gal- 

 vanized wire having an injurious effect on the fruit-trees trained on it, it 

 is simply nonsense ; I will not therefore waste space and the intelligent 

 reader's time by discussing it. Given a concrete wall, smoothly plastered, 

 and wired thus, what fruit-trees could be in a more excellent position 

 than those upon it ? The temporary coping taken off after all danger 

 from frost was past, every leaf would be under the refreshing influence 

 of the summer rains, all the advantages of walls as regards heat would be 

 obtained, the syringing-engine would not be counteracted by countless 



Fig. 116. 



Watt with galvanized wires for training trees. 



dens offering dry beds and comfortable breeding-places to the enemies 

 of the gardener and the fruit-tree, while the appearance of the wall 

 would be all that could be desired. 



" The wire and the raidisseur are also efficiently used so as to do away 

 with any necessity for nailing in training the peach and other trees, 

 when trained as cordons, as shown in the accompanying figure. When 

 the lines which the wires are to follow are fixed upon, bolts and eyes 

 are driven in, the wire is fixed to and passed through them, and then 

 made firm, as shown in the illustrations." (* The Parks, Promenades, 

 and Gardens of Paris.') 



Colouring the surface of walls black, with a view to the absorption 

 of heat, has been tried by a number of persons, and by some it has 

 been considered beneficial ; but as the radiation during night and in 

 cloudy weather is necessarily in proportion to the absorption during 



