268 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XVII. 



place them is at from three to six feet from the eclj^e of the walk, 

 and if in the space between the espalier and the walk a line of the 

 cordons elsewhere recommended be established, the effect and 

 result will prove very good indeed. In some cases where large 

 quantities of fruit are required, it may be considered desirable to 

 place them across a square some fifteen or eighteen feet apart. 

 The principle is very simple, the proof of which is that the 

 trellises at Versailles were erected by the garden workmen. 

 M. Hardy, the superintendent at Versailles, is the son of the 

 celebrated writer on fruit-trees of that name, and has had much 

 experience in fruit growing. "These trellises," says he, "are the 

 cheapest as well as the most ornamental that we have yet succeeded 

 in making, and the trees which I plant against them are of the 

 form that I prefer to all others, for promptly furnishing walls and 

 trellises, and for yielding a great number of varieties in a com- 

 paratively restricted space." The mode of employing the uprights 

 of pine-wood painted green and reaching from the top of the 

 trellis to within six inches of the ground is not a common 

 one, though very desirable where the erect method of train- 

 ing the shoots is practised. Of course any other forms may 

 be used with this system of trellising, with slight modifications 

 to suit different kinds or forms of trees. The double trellis 

 shown is simply a modification of the single one, and is not 

 only desirable where space is limited, but also for its economy, 

 for one set of uprights supports the two sets of wires by using 

 cross pieces of iron about eighteen inches long, and at the 

 desired distance apart. However, the engraving shows this 

 at a glance. 



The Pear is found to succeed badly here as a low cordon, and 

 to plant it as an oblique cordon at fifteen or eighteen inches apart 

 is considered much too close. A white wall fourteen feet high 

 covered with Easter Beurre Pears shows an excellent example of 

 the best method of growing this Pear. The trees are mostly on 

 the Quince stock and a few on the Pear, but all bear equally well. 

 They are all trained in the five-branched form usually adopted 

 here, and almost cover the tall white wall. The growers here 

 insist on the necessity of having white walls for fruit-trees, and 

 state that dark ones injure both fruit and leaves, while white ones 

 benefit both. White walls, apparently well lime-washed every 



