WALL FRUIT TREES. 



391 



Esperione, S. 



Black Hamburgh, S. 



Grizzly Frontignan, S. 



The last two grapes ripen re- 



markably well on the open wall 

 in the climate of London in fine 

 seasons. 



The mulberry is sometimes 

 planted against a west wall. 



Of all these different kinds of fruits, with the exception of the fig 

 and the grape, both dwarfs and riders may be procured in any of the 

 nurseries. The former, that is, the dwarfs, are for filling up the lower 

 parts of the wall, and ultimately also the upper part ; and the latter, 

 the standards or riders, are for filling up the upper part till the dwarfs 

 are so far advanced as to take their place, when the riders are taken 

 up and used elsewhere. The plants may be procured either one year 

 grafted, or one, two, or three years trained, the latter trees being 

 double or treble the price of the former, but filling the wall much 

 sooner. As riders are but of temporary duration, it is customary to 

 procure them three or more years' trained, that they may bear fruit 

 immediately. When the walls are under twelve feet high, it is scarcely 

 necessary to plant riders ; for if three years' trained trees are planted, 

 the wall will be covered to the top in seven years. 



The distance from each other at which the trees should be planted 

 depends on the species of tree, its size, the mode of training adopted, 

 the climate, the height of the wall, and to a certain extent also on the 

 width of the border. The following distances are calculated for com- 

 mon dwarfs on a wall twelve feet high, with a border twelve feet wide, 

 in the climate of London : Peaches, nectarines, and figs, fifteen feet 

 to twenty feet ; apricots, fifteen feet for the early sorts, and eighteen 

 feet to twenty-four feet for the late strong-growing sorts, as apricots 

 and plums do not bear pruning so well as other wall- trees ; cherries 

 and plums, fifteen feet to twenty feet, or the stronger-growing plums, 

 such as the Washington, twenty-four feet ; apples on dwarfing stocks, 

 fifteen feet if on free stocks, from twenty-five feet to thirty feet; 

 mulberries, from fifteen feet to twenty feet. These distances are calcu- 

 lased for the common fan or horizontal modes of training. If cordon 

 trees are used, the trees may be planted from three to four feet apart, 

 and trained either perpendicularly to the top of the wall, or more 

 obliquely. The wall will thus be covered much sooner, and more fruit 

 may be gathered from a given space in less time. Vines may be planted 

 among the other trees at thirty feet or forty feet distance, and a single 

 stem from each plant trained up to the coping of the wall, and then 

 horizontally close under it, where, if pruned in the spurring-in 

 manner, it will bear abundantly, and produce more fruit than if it had 

 been treated like a fruit tree. If however the situation is favourable 

 for vines, they may be planted from ten feet to fifteen feet apart, and 

 trained either in the perpendicular manner, or horizontally with upright 

 laterals, or in the fan or other modes to be afterwards described. 

 One rider, peach, cherry, or plum, may be introduced beside every 

 dwarf, if the latter should be maiden plants ; but if they are three or 



