Proceedings of the London Horticultural Society. 631 



purpose as the expensive wooden or cast-iron trellises usually met with in 

 those places where the espalier mode of training is adopted. I accordingly 

 submitted the plan to Sir Charles Lemon, who has since had it carried into 

 execution to a considerable extent. 



" Wire erections of the kind I am about to describe are not uncommon, 

 I believe, as fences, in some parts of the kingdom ; but in Cornwall it is only 

 within the last few years they have been introduced. Mr. Gilpin, in his 

 excellent Hints on Landscape-Gardening, p. 217., has noticed the wire fence 

 as being best suited for those parts near to the house, or to the approach, 

 but he has not shown the manner in which it may be erected. The accom- 

 panying sketches and details will, I trust, supply this deficiency, and enable 

 any one who may be desirous of erecting a wire fence or trellis to do so, 

 with the assistance of a mason and blacksmith, at a very moderate expense. 

 The wire used is known as No. 32. It is about a quarter of an inch in diameter, 

 and is put up in large coils. Each wire measures from 115 ft. to 120 ft. in 

 length. The main upright posts {fig. 153. a a) are of iron, 1£ in. square, and 

 from 5^ ft. to 6 ft. high, with holes 6 or 7 inches apart for receiving the small 

 screws and nuts, to which the wires are attached in the way shown at fig. 152. 

 At the opposite end the wire is secured by being bent a little at the point, 

 and having a small wedge driven over it in each of the holes of the upright. 

 Both these main posts are 4J ft. above the level of the ground, and are fixed 

 beneath the surface in large rough blocks of stone (d e), with iron wedges, 

 which are more convenient, and answer the purpose quite as well as if they 

 were run in with lead. The stay-bar is round, and 1£ in. in diameter. It 

 varies in length according to the inclination of the ground, but when the 

 latter is nearly level it is about 7 ft. long. The upper end is flattened, and 

 beveled, so as to square with the upright, to which it is fixed by means of a 

 screw atf. The lower end is only a little bent, that it may fit into a some- 

 what smaller block of stone (e) than the one at d. The connecting bar (c) 

 is square or round, and need not exceed an inch in either case. It will also 

 vary in length, according to circumstances. On a nearly level surface it 

 must be about 5 ft. long, and have an eye at each end large enough for the 

 end of the post and stay to go through. In addition to this, there are up- 

 rights of one-inch flat bar by half an inch in thickness fixed in stone, at 30 

 or 40 ft. apart, or even nearer if necessary, for the purpose of stiffening the 

 trellis. 



" In the erection of this kind of trellis, it is requisite to have an instrument 

 for drawing the wires like the one represented at fig. 151. to the scale of an 

 inch to a foot, which may be made without much difficulty. The one I have 

 sketched was constructed by our own blacksmith, and is a very efficient 

 contrivance for the purpose. After the stones are bored and set in their 

 places, with the earth firmly rammed around them, the next thing to be done 

 is to fix the main post a, and wedge it tight. It ought to lean about an 

 inch back from the perpendicular, to allow for its giving a little when the whole 

 strain of the wires comes upon it, which will bring it upright. The connect- 

 ing bar (c) is then slipped down over it, while the lower end of the stay-bar (b) 

 is put through the other eye and into the stone e, and the upper end screwed 

 to the main post atf. The triangle from which the wires are to be stretched 

 is then complete. A similar triangle must be made at the opposite end, 

 and against the main post of which (p) the instrument above noticed is to 

 be placed for the purpose of drawing the wire. This is done with great 

 facility by means of a double piece of rope-yarn twisted several times round 

 the end of each, and hooked, as shown at h. The screw g is then worked 

 until the wire enters its proper hole in the post p, when it is bent and 

 secured by a wedge, as already stated. The nuts on the bolts (fig. 152.) at the 

 end from which the wires were drawn, are then screwed up a little, so as to 

 make all the wires as tight as possible. The cost of the whole averages from 

 Is. 6d. to 2s. per yard. 



" I have been thus minute with the details of the trellis and the mode of 



