FRUIT TREES FOR ESPALIERS AND DWARFS. 



395 



not only in straight lines, but in curves of every description. This is 

 effected by means of underground braces, or underground perpen- 

 dicular posts, and these posts may be either of stone or of cast-iron, 

 and they may be built into masses of masonry where the soil is soft, 

 or has been moved several feet in depth. No brace need ever appear 

 above ground, as at 6, in fig. 335 ; nor should the posts ever appear 



Fig. 335. 



Strained wire espalier -rail. 



to rise out of the naked soil, as do a, a, in the figure, but always 

 out of a block of stone. Where the soil is on turf, this block, which 

 may be six inches square, need not rise more than an inch above the 

 surface ; but where the ground is to be dug as in a kitchen garden, the 

 upper surface of the block may be nine inches, or a foot square, and 

 may rise two inches or three inches above the surface of the soil. 



The reasons for a stone base are as follow : All materials which 

 have been prepared for the purposes of construction are considered as 

 thus rendered subject to the laws of architecture ; and the first law is, 

 that every superstructure must have an architectural base, on which it 

 is placed. Thus, speaking with reference to design, every perpendicular 

 line must rest upon a horizontal one ; and speaking with reference to 

 materials, this horizontal line must be of the same, or of a kind analo- 

 gous to that of the perpendicular ; of a kind which must at all events 

 be equally, if not more, firm and durable than it is. Live wood, that 

 is, growing trees, may rise out of soil, but never architectural wood, 

 that is, squared posts, which ought always to rise out of stone. If this 

 be true of wood, of course it must be much more so of iron, which, 

 though harder than either wood or stone, yet is not nearly so durable 

 as the latter material, which consequently forms a proper base for it 

 to rest on. 



Some of the preceding remarks merely serve to show how rude and 

 awkward is the system of trellising employed in British gardens. " The 

 French are far before us in this respect. So satisfactory is the system 

 adopted, that I am certain if English cultivators generally could get an 

 idea of its excellence it would lead to a revolution in our fruit culture, 

 and a great improvement in the appearance of our gardens. I know of 

 no way whereby we may so highly improve the garden culture of the 



