THE FRUIT GARDEN. 199 



sun strikes the south side of a fence with such force that 

 the foliage in contact with it is burned. It is therefore 

 necessary, where the walls or fences are to be occupied 

 with espaliers, to erect suitable trellises at the distance of 

 six to twelve inches from them, on which to train the 

 trees. The form of these differs according to the nature 

 of the subject to be trained. They are generally made of 

 upright and cross-bars, of inch boards, three inches wide, 

 placed within six to twelve inches of each other, accord- 

 ing to the growth of the species ; the larger the foliage 

 and the longer the shoots, the greater may be the dis- 

 tances ; thus, the grape twelve inches, and the peach 

 eight. Sometimes they are constructed of wooden bars 

 and wire rods alternately ; these answer a good purpose 

 for the grape, as it fixes itself to the wires by the tendrils. 

 The trellis is fastened to the wall by iron hooks, and 

 should stand a little farther from it at the bottom than at 

 the top, for the purpose of giving the tree a better ex- 

 posure to the sun, rain, etc. Fruits are grown so suc- 

 cessfully in this country in the open ground that walls or 

 trellises are seldom used, except to economize space. In 

 the North, however, where the more tender fruits do not 

 succeed in the open ground, walls may be advantageously 

 employed, as the trees trained on them are easily pro- 

 tected both from winter and spring frosts. 



Laying Out the Fruit Garden. This is the arrange- 

 ment or distribution of the ground into suitable plots or 

 compartments, necessary walks, etc. The mode of doing 

 this depends on the size of the garden, and the manner in 

 which it is to be planted. Fruit gardens, properly speak- 

 ing, are such as are wholly devoted to fruits ; but a very 

 common form, as has been already observed, is the mixed 

 garden, where a portion only is devoted to fruits, and the 

 remainder to culinary vegetables. We will first consider 



The Fruit Garden proper. In all fruit gardens the 

 number of walks should be no greater than is absolutely 



