FRUIT-TREES FOR ESPALIERS AND DWARFS. 



427 



posts, and these posts may be either of stone or of cast-iron, and they may 

 be built into masses of masonry where the soil is soft, or has been moved, 

 several feet in depth. No brace need ever ap- 

 pear above ground, as at &, 6, in fig. 334 ; nor 

 should the posts ever appear to rise out of the 

 naked soil, as do a, a, a, in the figure, but always 

 out of a block of stone. Where the soil is 

 on turf, this block, which may be six inches 

 square, need not rise more than an inch above 

 the surface ; but where the ground is to be dug 

 as in a kitchen garden, the upper surface of the 

 block may be nine inches, or a foot square, and 

 may rise two inches, or three inches above the 

 surface of the soil. 



The reasons for a stone base are as follow : 

 All materials which have been prepared for 

 the purposes of construction are considered as 

 thus rendered subject to the laws of architec- 

 ture ; and the first law is, that every superstruc- 

 ture must have an architectural base, on which 

 it is placed. Thus, speaking with reference to 

 design, every perpendicular line must rest upon 

 a horizontal one ; and speaking with reference 

 to materials, this horizontal line must be of the 

 same, or of a kind analogous to that of the per- 

 pendicular; of a kind which must at all events 

 be equally, if not more firm and durable than 

 it is. Live wood, that is, growing trees, may 

 rise out of soil, but never architectural wood, 

 that is, squared posts, which ought always to 

 rise out of stone. If this be true of wood, of 

 course it must be much more so of iron, which, 

 though harder than either wood or stone, yet 

 is not nearly so durable as the latter mate- 

 rial, which consequently forms a proper base 

 for it to rest on. 



Espalier-rails and pleasure-ground fences of 

 this kind are put up in the best and most 

 economical manner by Porter and Co., of 

 Thames-street, London ; and by Cottam and 

 H alien, of Winsley-street, Oxford-street. 



900. Dwarfs may be allowed to take their 

 natural shape, but they harmonise much better 

 with the regularity and symmetry of a walled 

 garden when they are trained in regular shapes, 

 which may be formed of wooden rods, stakes 

 with the bark on, or iron-wire. Trees spurred 

 in, or trained in the conical manner, require 

 no framework as guides. It is scarcely neces- 

 sary to add that all dwarfs, and all standards to be trained in the conical 

 manner or spurred in, should be grafted on dwarfing stocks. 



