WIRES FOR TRAINING TREES. 57i WIRES FOR TRAINING TREES. 



a few links of a light chain are attached 

 to the free end of the wire, and passed 

 through a hole in the post large enough to 

 admit of its easy passage. The wire is 

 then drawn as tight as it is possible to 

 strain it, and secured from returning by a 



FIG. 2. SIMPLE MODE OF STRAINING WIRE. 



nail or piece of stout wire passed through 

 the link projecting beyond the surface of 

 the post opposite to that at which the chain 

 has entered it. 



Wires and Fittings for Training 

 Trees on Walls. 



There are many who do not think it to 

 be to the advantage of a trained tree that 

 its branches should be pinned closely to 

 the surface of the wall by nails and shreds, 

 while others, again, do not care to have 

 nails driven into brickwork. There is 

 something to be said, no doubt, against 

 both these methods of procedure, but it is 

 improbable that either of them will ever be 

 entirely abandoned, as they possess advan- 

 tages as well as disadvantages. For those, 

 however, who have a decided objection to 

 them, a substitute can be found in the form 

 of wires stretched horizontally along the 

 surface of the walls from end to end, at a 

 little distance from it. The wires may be 

 placed at such distances apart as may be 

 deemed suitable to the trees that are to be 

 trained on them ; but it is not desirable 

 that they should be closer than 6 inches, or 

 farther apart than 12 inches, or., taking a 

 brick wall as our guide, that they should 

 not be closer than the width of two bricks 

 with the intervening layer of mortar, or 



farther apart than four bricks. The appli- 

 ances that are required for stretching wires 

 over the surface of walls are simple in 

 themselves. First of all, there is the wire 

 itself; secondly, the holdfasts for taking 

 the fixed end of the wire ; thirdly, the 

 driving eyes ; and lastly, the holdfasts that 

 are used as strainers to draw the wire tight, 

 and to afford the means of tightening it at 

 any time should it have become slack from 

 any cause that may tend to stretch it or 

 cause it to expand. In the accompanying 

 illustration are exhibited the necessary 

 fittings. At A the form of the ordinary 

 holdfast is shown, which is galvanised and 

 sold at the rate of 2s. per dozen ; and at B 

 an improved form, also galvanised, and 

 sold at 2s. 6d. per dozen. Each of these 

 appliances consists of a piece of pointed 

 iron to be driven into the wall between any 

 two courses of bricks, and a projecting 

 flange near the outer end, pierced with a 

 hole to take the fixed end of the wire, 

 which is passed through it and fastened by 

 twisting the free end round the wire. At 

 c a representation of the driving eyes is 



FITTINGS FOR WIRFNG WALLS. 



given. These eyes are driven into the 

 wall at distances of about 10 feet, and 

 serve to guide the wire in its course along 

 the walls from end to end, and to support 

 it, as without such means of sustaining it 



