392 FRUIT TREES FOR ESPALIERS AND DWARFS. 



four years' trained, riders are unnecessary excepting on walls above 

 twelve feet high. 



For low walls, the distances above given may be increased one-fourth, 

 when the height of the wall is nine feet, and one-half when it is only 

 six feet. It is more profitable however to plant the trees thickly on 

 dwarf walls, so as to cover them at once, and then thin out every other 

 tree or two trees, and leave one, as they advance in age. The mode of 

 training for walls under nine feet should generally be the half-fan 

 manner, shown in fig. 293. By thus having only one shoot from 

 a plant, the top of the wall will be reached by that shoot in three or at 

 most four years ; and as the permanent trees encroach on the temporary 

 ones on each side, the latter can be taken out one at a time, so as never 

 to leave an unseemly blank on the wall. 



Training, in the case of walls twelve feet high and upwards, should 

 be the fan manner for the peach, nectarine, early apricots, and figs ; the 

 half-fan for the stronger apricots, plums, cherries, the more delicate 

 pears, and the mulberry ; and the horizontal manner for the apple and 

 the greater number of pears. 



Planting. The plants should be placed on hillocks higher or lower 

 according to the depth to which the ground has been moved in preparing 

 the border, in order that in two or three years, when the ground shall 

 have finally settled, the collar or part of the stem whence the first 

 roots proceed shall be between two inches and four inches above the 

 general surface of the ground. The distance of the collar from the 

 wall, when newly planted, should be for the more delicate-growing 

 trees, such, as the peach, from six inches to nine inches ; and for the 

 more vigorous-growing kinds, such as the apple, pear, and cherry, from 

 nine inches to a foot. We say nothing as to the season of planting, or 

 the mode of performing the operation, these and every part of culture 

 generally applicable to ligneous plants, having been treated of in detail 

 in those parts of the work with which the reader is supposed to be 

 already familiar. 



Fruit Trees far Espaliers and Dwarfs. 



Espaliers are commonly planted in lines parallel to the main walks 

 in kitchen gardens. There is commonly an espalier-rail on both sides of 

 all the walks, excepting the surrounding one next the wall-border. On 

 that border espalier-trees are not generally planted, and the border should 

 be wholly devoted to the roots of the wall-trees, with the exception of a 

 line of horizontal cordons carried along within a foot of the walk. The 

 espalier-rail is generally placed from two to four feet distant from the 

 walk, and on the inner side of the rail there is commonly a footpath one or 

 two feet wide, at a distance of two or three feet, so that these trees have a 

 space of from five to eight feet wide, which may be considered as exclu- 

 sively devoted to their roots. If the main walks are of flagstone, supported 

 on piers, or if they are formed of a thin layer of gravel on good soil, then 

 we may add half the width of the walk, in addition to that already men- 

 tioned. If the border is not dug and cropped, but only slightly 

 manured on the surface, and once a year gently stirred with the three- 



