THE BLOSSOM.] 



PEACTICE OF HOETICrLTTJEE. 



[ESPALIERS. 



training, a weak shoot should be left free, 

 whilst a strong one should be restrained. 

 A shoot slightly turning off from the perpen- 

 dicular will, ccBteris paribus, be more plentifully 

 supplied with sap than one which is laid out 

 in a horizontal direction, or deflected from its 

 parent stem. The growth of a luxuriant shoot 

 may, for some time, be impeded by having its 

 tender extremity pinched off, when one of a 

 much weaker description may even surpass 

 it in the capacity of fruit-bearing. By giving 

 attention to these hints and expedients, and 

 making a judicious employment of the pruning- 

 knife, it will be easy for any practical gardener 

 to execute the general forms which trees are 

 made to assume, and which are mostly de- 

 tailed in horticultural works. The most simple 

 of these, and the most practised for their 

 general excellence, are distinguished as the 

 horizontal, the fan, and the lialf-fan forms. 

 But the choice of particular modes of training 

 is too often determined by mere fashionable 

 prejudice, which leads to the application of the 

 same form in all sorts of trees. " Thus," 

 says a writer on this subject, " the French are 

 apt to reduce everything to the fan system, 

 while some English horticulturists are inclined 

 to force trees of the most rambling growth 

 into the pillory of a horizontal arrangement. 

 Such a uniformity cannot possibly be in 

 accordance with nature. The enlightened 

 cultivator will employ various forms, and will 

 determine for himself which is the most appro- 

 priate, not only for every species, but even for 

 each particular variety of fruit trees. By 

 attentive observation and rational experiment, 

 more knowledge in this department may be 

 obtained in a few years, than by a whole life 

 spent in routine practice." 



PROTECTION OF THE BLOSSOxM. 



In a climate so variable as that of England, 

 more especially in the northern and eastern 

 parts of the island, it is necessary that the 

 gardener should be furnished with such appli- 

 ances as will enable him to protect the blos- 

 soms of his fruit trees from the late frosts in 

 the season of spring. Frames covered with 

 osnaburg, bunting, and similar light fobrics, 

 have been recommended for this purpose, with 

 the observation that they should be set in a 

 slanting position in front of the trees It is 

 952 



said that the best protection for wall trees are 

 portable wooden copings about nine inches 

 in breadth, attached to permanent iron brac- 

 kets, fixed in the wall immediately below the 

 stone coping. These wooden defences should 

 be applied during spring, previous to the 

 commencement of the blossoming and ex- 

 panding of the buds ; and there should be 

 connected with them a material called scrim- 

 cloth — a sort of thin canvas, admitting light 

 very freely, yet, of itself, sufficiently capable 

 to ward off frosts of ordinary severity. This 

 cloth should be let down on the approach of 

 evening, and drawn up again on the return 

 of the morning ; but any invention which 

 serves to interrupt radiation, though it may 

 fail to preserve the temperature much above 

 the freezing-point, will act beneficially. 

 Standard fruit trees must be left to themselves ; 

 and, indeed, from the lateness of the season at 

 which they flower, they are generally more 

 deteriorated by drenching rains and blight, 

 than by the immediate influences of cold. 



ESPALIERS. 



In making choice of the trees most suitable 

 for an espalier rail, it may be taken as a 

 general rule, that those which are of a finer 

 quality than can be cultivated with advan- 

 tage as standards, are the best ; and, at the 

 same time, not to take such as require the 

 greater heat and the protection of a wall. 

 " It should be a maxim for all climates," 

 says the Eev. Nathaniel Paterson, who has 

 devoted much of his attention to horticulture, 

 " that fruit, good of its kind, though the kind 

 be inferior, is preferable to that of a better 

 nature, but imperfectly produced. A good 

 crop of codlings is better than a bad crop of 

 golden pippins. . . . Having your walls 

 already furnished with the best sorts that may 

 suit your climate, you have only to go a degree 

 lower in the scale to make up your espaliers. 

 But should your wall be so limited as not to 

 aftbrd room for so many of the better sorts 

 as might otherwise be admissible, it will bo 

 proper to cultivate as espaliers certain trees 

 which ought, in other circumstances, to have a 

 place on the wall. That part of your rails 

 which is opposite to the south wall, and has 

 some benefit from its reflection, is the most 

 favourable for such an experiment. At the 



