FRUITS. CHAP. 



all the other forms. They must stand at a considerable 

 distance from , the walk, or they extend their branches 

 over it. It is a circle of ground that they occupy or 

 shade j and the plat in which they stand can only be 

 partially cultivated for other things. If they mount 

 above the reach of the hand, to get at the fruit is 

 a business of great trouble ; and, after all, there can 

 be no regular and true pruning j no minute inspec- 

 tion : no picking off of caterpillars with exactness : no 

 detection and destruction of other insects - } and, in the 

 case of cherries, what a difficult business it must always 

 be effectually to protect the fruit against birds on any 

 other tree except wall or espalier ! I have seen the 

 thing attempted some hundreds of times, and never saw 

 it effected in my life. Monstrous must be the expense 

 and trouble to keep the net extended all round and held 

 clear off the tree at top, where the finest cherries always 

 are. In short, the net lays upon the top of the tree > 

 birds come and eat the fine cherries there, and leave you 

 the sour ones beneath. An espalier, on the contrary, is, 

 with the aid of a few long stakes, and a good net, pro- 

 tected as completely as if it were within a hand-glass. 

 Espaliers were always the great reliance of our gardens 

 until within the last sixty or seventy years. An objection 

 is made to their formality, their stiffness of appearance ! 

 Alas ! the objection is to what is deemed the trouble, or 

 labour; and, SWIFT observes, that labour is pain, and 

 that, in all his family, from his great grandmother to 

 himself, nobody liked pain. This, however, is a great 

 error -, for, as in an infinite number of cases, some of 

 which occur to every man almost every day of his life, 



