434 



THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XXIV. 



engaging a competent man to superintend the cultivation of a certain number of 

 station orchards and gardens, and perhaps it might answer to make some similar 

 arrangement in connection with the planting, pruning, training, etc., of fruit-trees 

 grown on the sides of the line. Railway employes in those localities where the 

 traffic is small, would thus be enabled to make a profitable use of their spare time, 

 and, under the direction of an efficient staff of pomologists, be the means of 

 turning to good account thousands of acres of what is now waste, unproductive 

 land. — S., in ' FieJd.^ 



In France and Belgium it is often the case that, instead of the 

 trees being in the form of standards, they are trained as is 

 represented in the accompanying engravings, so as to form a 

 hedge. Established trees crossed in this way should not be 

 allowed to get into a rough hedge-like condition, but, on the 

 contrary, should be trained as neatly and perfectly as trees on a 



trellis or wall. No fraying of the branches, resulting from their 

 being interlaced, need take place. A shoot should be taken 

 along the top so as to act as a finish and tend to hold all tightly 

 together, and, thus constructed, the whole will look much firmer 

 and neater than the ill-trained espaliers that one too often sees. 

 These fruit-hedges might well replace useless hedges and other 

 fences in many gardens and country-places. 



A correspondent well conversant with fruit and fruit-culture in 

 England, sent me the following note with sketches : — 



" During a recent journey through a part of Belgium I was 

 struck with what appeared to me to be a very excellent method 

 of turning railway-fences to good account. For miles along the 

 road between Aix-la-Chapelle and Brussels the fences on either 

 side of the railroad consist of wooden posts 4 inches square and 



