188 Review of PaxtorCs Horticultural Register. 



kitchen garden too much the aspect of an orchard. Dwarf, neatly 

 trained trees are so much superior as regards beauty, and so much 

 more convenient for picking the fruit, that there need not be any 

 necessity of urging the planting of such in preference to tall stand- 

 ard trees. Espalier training is also a very excellent way of getting 

 much fruit from a small piece of ground ; and we wish the system 

 was more generally adopted here, • The author's remarks corres- 

 pond so near with our own ideas on this subject, that we extract 

 them for the informatiou of our readers : — 



" To have fruit trees symmetrically trained, and which do not usurp 

 too much space, is what would occur to every one as most desirable, 

 and accordingly the old French and Dutch fashion of espaliers was very 

 early adopted in this country. And so indispensable Avere espaliers 

 considered formerly, that the most expensive rails, as they are called, 

 were in many places erected for the trees. We have worked in a 

 garden where the espalier rails were made by carpenters of the best 

 yellow deal, with top and bottom rails, into both of which the uprights 

 were all moi-ticed, painted light blue, and fixed in stone pattens. 

 Moreover, at each corner there were lock-up gates, of no manner 

 of use, but of much trouble to the foreman, who had to see all 

 these gates were locked every evening. And, what was worst of all, 

 the construction was bad; the uprights being so large, that it was 

 impossible to keep the trees in proper form, unless nails and shreds 

 had been used. 



Many different forms of espalier rails have been invented, and of 

 either wood or iron ; but none answer the purpose better than rough 

 six-feet stakes, pointed and charred at bottom, driven by line fourteen 

 inches into the ground, and connected at top by a ledge of some kind 

 of tough wood. The stakes are about ten inches from each other, and 

 along them the lateral branches are trained. 



The most common form of training on espalier rails, is that called 

 horizontal, that is, with an upright stem, and the branches led right 

 and left in pairs therefrom. This is the most symmetrical and suitable 

 for the purpose ; very little ground is occupied, and espaliers so trained 

 are profitable and neat boundaries to the quarters of a garden. They 

 are easy of access, either for pruning, training or gathering' the fruit, and 

 the trees are perfectly safe ficom being damaged by wind. 



To form a tree intended to be trained in this manner, maiden plants 

 one or two years from the graft are chosen ; and, the ground being well 

 prepared for their reception by trenching, &c., are planted opposite a 

 stake, to which the most central shoot is always trained. Two lateral 

 shoots are tied down horizontally, about eight or ten inches from the 

 ground, annually continued outwards from the stem as far as they will 

 go, or until they have reached to the outside of the space the tree is 

 intended to cover. Thus the young tree consists of only three shoots 

 during the first year. At the end of the first year the central leader is 

 pruned down to about a foot long, and this on the following summer 

 will, or may be allowed to, produce three shoots, the topmost to be 

 trained upright, and the others, one on each side horizontally. This 

 method of pruning down the upright, and leading the laterals hori- 

 zontally, is continued year after year, until the central shoot reaches 

 the top, when, if the two last laterals are high enough, it is entirely 

 pruned off. 



When a young tree is very vigorous, the desired form may be more 

 expeditiously obtained, by making the upright produce two pairs of 



