WALLS OF CONCRETE. 



WALLS, FORM OF. 



properly bonded, and hot lime or good 

 cement is used. It should be the chief 

 aim of the gardener, if he is charged with 

 the superintendence of the work, to see 

 that the workmen use the proper bricks, 

 and that they are bedded in a moderate 

 quantity of mortar made of fresh-slaked 

 lime or cement. 



Walls of Concrete. 



Garden walls may be built altogether 

 of concrete, which is a manifest advan- 

 tage in districts in which gravel is plen- 

 tiful, but where bricks and stones are not 

 so easily obtained. When the surface of 

 the ground is reached the remainder of the 

 wall above ground is formed in successive 

 R S 



SUl'PORTS FOR WIRES ALONG FACE OF CONCRETE 

 WALL. 



stages by concrete thrown into a space the 

 width of the wall, and formed into the 

 shape of a trough of the wall's thickness, 

 by means of boards placed on either side 

 of the wall, and sustained in a framework 

 specially contrived for the purpose. The 

 corners or "returns" of the walls are 

 managed in a similar manner. Thus walls 

 of any length may be raised to any height 

 at comparatively little cost. It must be 

 remembered, however, that concrete, when 

 properly made, is so hard that it is not 

 possible to drive nails into it as into brick- 

 work. It is therefore desirable, and indeed 

 necessary, to provide means for training 

 fruit-trees and the support of climbing 

 plants, &c., during the building of the 

 wall. This is best done by inserting, at 

 distances from 8 to 12 feet, vertical pieces 



of wood in the face of the wall along its 

 entire length. These should be made of 

 a dovetailed form in section, as shown in 

 the accompanying illustration, which re- 

 presents a horizontal section of a concrete 

 wall thus treated. The wall, as it has 

 been said, is formed, or moulded, by 

 throwing concrete between boards placed 

 along its inner and outer face that is to 

 say, along PQ, the inner surface, and RS, 

 the outer surface. The uprights, as shown 

 at A, which should be prepared some little 

 time before they are wanted for use, and 

 well dressed with tar, or painted, if it be 

 preferred, are then placed at intervals 

 along the boards that form the inner face, 

 to which they may be temporarily attached 

 by screws driven into them from the outer 

 surface of the boards, in order to keep 

 them flush with the surface of the wall. 

 As they are keyed into the wall, by being 

 wider behind than they are in front, it is 

 not possible for them to be pulled out as 

 pieces rectangular in section might be, 

 owing to the shrinkage of the concrete. 

 These vertical slips of wood, which may 

 be from 2 to 3 inches in thickness, and 

 from 3 to 4 . inches in width, will then 

 affords means for inserting screw-eyes to 

 carry wires along the surface of the wall, 

 as shown in the illustration, and for the 

 support of the apparatus that is required 

 to strain the wires and keep them at a 

 proper tension. Therefore, if it be in- 

 tended to enclose a garden with concrete 

 walls, it is necessary, before beginning to 

 build it, to provide means for training 

 trees, e-., as described, as it can only 

 be done with considerable difficulty after 

 the wall is built, and then only in a 

 manner which affords far less satisfactory 

 results. 



Walls, Form of. 



We have been so long accustomed to 

 grow peaches and nectarines on walls, 



