FRUITS. CHAP 



258. Espalier. This is the form which, in my opinion 

 is the only one suited for the open ground of a garden, 

 The fanciful affair of arching for vines or any other tree 

 is more a matter of pleasure-garden than of kitchen 

 garden : the other forms are intended to promote bear- 

 ing and they are all vastly inferior to the espalier in 

 this respect. Apricots obtained in any way except 

 against a wall or a house are seldom good for much j 

 there are a few of the sorts which will bear in other si- 

 tuations j but the fruit is good for very little. Apples, 

 pears, plums, cherries, and quinces and medlars, all do ex- 

 ceedingly well as espaliers ; and it is notorious, that the 

 fruit is always larger, and of finer flavour when the tree 

 is trained in this form than when the limbs are suffered 

 to go in an upright direction. There are several sorts 

 of pears which will be very fine on espaliers on the very 

 same spot of ground where they will scarcely come to 

 anything like perfection on a standard tree or upon any 

 tree the limbs of which are suffered to go upright. 



959. Espaliers are managed in the following manner : 

 Suppose it to be an apple-tree which has been grafted in 

 the manner before directed, and which has a good strong 

 shoot coming up from the graft. Take the tree up, and 

 plant it in the manner directed under the head of Plant- 

 ing in this Chapter. Whether planted in the fall or in 

 the spring, let the tree stand in the spring till the buds 

 begin to break, then cut the shoot down to within three 

 buds of the bottom. Cut sloping and let the cut end 

 pretty near to the point where the top bud of the three is 

 coming out. These three buds will send forth three 

 shoots, and all the three will take an upright direction. 



