THE CHERRY. 



557 



trees are cherries of the best early and late kinds, one or two early apples, 

 one or two early pears, and one or two early plums. The trees are planted 

 in quincunx, and their branches are trained in a horizontal position so as to 

 be within reach of the hand, by being tied down to stakes. All round the 

 margin are, first a bed of strawberries, and next a row of plants of goose- 

 berry, currant, and raspberry. A gravel walk surrounds the whole, between 

 the strawberry-bed and the row of fruit shrubs, and the space among the 

 standard trees is simply left unstirred, so that when dry every part of it 

 may be walked on. The manner in which the roof of netting is fixed 

 over this garden is thus : At regular diances, all through the area, wooden 

 boxes, as sockets for posts, as at fig. 371, 6, are fixed in the ground, and 

 when the cherries begin to ripen, 

 a net of the kind used in pil- 

 chard fishing, and made at Brid- 

 port, in Dorsetshire, the meshes 

 of which are two inches wide, 

 is drawn over the whole paralle- 

 logram, fastened to the top of 

 the wire fence by hooks which 

 are fixed there, and supported 

 above the trees by the props 

 placed in the sockets. These 

 props are fourteen feet high at 

 the sides, and gradually rise to 



the middle of the garden, and Fig. 371. Netting for covering a Cherry Garden. 



they have blunt heads, in order not to injure the netting. The netting 

 necessary for covering this space, which is eighty feet by two hundred 

 and twenty feet, is in two pieces, each one hundred feet by one hundred 

 and fifty feet ; it is put on in the following manner : One piece is spread 

 out immediately within the wire fence, and a number of men with poles 

 carry it over the tops of the trees and posts, after it is fastened to one 

 side ; then they fasten it on the other, and so on till the whole is com- 

 pleted. The separate divisions are then joined together, which thus form 

 one entire netted roof, giving the garden a very singular and yet new 

 and agreeable appearance. During rain, or dewy evenings, the net is 

 tightened or stretched to its utmost extent (fig. 371, a), and forms a grand 



Fig. 372. 



Section through a Cherry Garden, showing the netting tightened by rain, (a) and 

 slackened by drought (6). 



vault over the whole cherry garden (fig. 371 a, and 372 a) ; during sunshine, 

 or when the weather is dry, it is slackened (fig. 371, &), and forms a festooned 

 vault, supported by posts (fig. 372, 6). It is advisable to tan the net 

 every year with oak bark,, which adds greatly to its durability. 



Were the object of this cherry garden merely to protect the fruit from 

 birds, training the trees on espaliers and applying nets, as is done against 

 walls, would be an easier and cheaper mode; but the cherry garden at 

 Hylands is intended as a place of enjoyment where ladies and gentlemen 



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