November 11, 1872. 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



87 



(an improved Six-weeks) for early use, Negro, and Liver- 

 coloured. The Canadian Wonder grows about as strongly as 

 Negro, has pods about 1J to 2 inches longer, and comes in at 



the same time. It is a good sort. Scarlet Runners have 

 been and still are (Oct. 30th) good. I grow the old sort and 

 Champion ; the latter I prefer. — G. Abbey. 



WIRING GARDEN WALLS. 



The system of building garden walls of concrete, with brick 

 pillars at regular intervals, and the whole faced with cement, 

 is being chosen in preference to brick walls by many of those 

 who require enclosures for large as well as small gardens, and 

 I believe it is not too much to say that many persons have 

 some doubt as to the satisfactory result of embarking in this 

 form of construction for garden walls. Their belief is that 

 they will not withstand the severe test of the weather in our 

 climate for any great 



r\#S»wS~«F^^r^^~TS~^"Xa^\«Sy«\ 



length of time, and they 

 have other reasons which 

 I need not now mention. 

 Be the result what it may , 

 the concrete system is on 

 its trial, and if it answer, 

 hundreds will be induced 

 to adopt it. 



As regards first out- 

 lay, there is not a doubt 

 about concrete walls be- 

 ing much cheaper than 

 brick walls, and the work 

 is very much more expe- 

 ditiously executed ; these 

 are items for considera- 

 tion where there is much 

 ground to enclose and the 

 walls high. The walls of 

 the new kitchen garden 

 of nearly seven acres at Hatfield House, the seat of the Mar- 

 quis of Salisbury, are built of concrete and faced with Portland 

 cement ; they are 12 feet high, 18 inches or more thick, and 

 the whole length is over 750 yards, and protected by a narrow 

 brick coping. The walls are supported by strong brick pillars 

 at intervals of 20 feet ; these are built-in with the wall, and 

 therefore out of sight. The greatest part of this work was 

 done while I was in the service of the Marquis, and completed 

 in twelve months, with comparatively few hands. This expe- 

 riment will be watched with considerable interest by those who 

 have such work in contemplation. 



After completing the walls, the next thing for consideration 

 was, How and after what fashion were they to be wired? The 

 great aim was to deface or injure the walls as slightly as 

 possible, at the same time to have strength and durability, 

 and I need hardly say that this was found in the system of 

 wiring walls adopted by Mr. R. Holliday, wire-worker, 2a, Por- 

 tobello Terrace, Notting Hill Gate, London. His system is 



the best that I know, and most others who have seen it at 

 Hatfield agree with me that it is both neat and strong, as well 

 as correct in principle. The accompanying figure represents 

 the system on which these walls are wired, and I will describe 

 it as well as I can. In the first place, galvanised iron eyes are 

 driven into the wall at intervals of from 9 to 10 inches as may 

 be agreed upon, these are to regulate the line of wire which 

 passes through them. At one end of the wall is an iron bar 



firmly fixed into the wall 

 by iron fangs i inches 

 long, and cemented-in 

 strongly and neatly ; this 

 is pierced with holes, 

 and each wire first fast- 

 ened firmly to it, and 

 then passed through the 

 eyes and connected to an 

 iron frame or ratchet 

 bar with rollers and cog- 

 wheels. This is at the 

 opposite end of the wall. 

 Each wire has a roller 

 and cog-wheel to itself, 

 and is tightened by an 

 iron spanner or wrench. 

 The wires, and indeed 

 all the connections, are 

 much si ronger than those 

 adopted by the French 

 in wiring their walls, as will be seen when the breaking 

 strain of the wire on Mr. Holliday's system is nearly, if not 

 quite, double that of the wire used by the French — in fact, 

 the whole piece of workmanship has so far turned out satis- 

 factorily, and is the best I have yet seen. 



With regard to the training of the trees to walls^ that are 

 wired similarly to the above, there can be no question about 

 there being a great saving of time over the plan of nailing. 

 Horizontal-trained trees look handsome objects on a straight 

 line of wire, and whatever form of training may be chosen for 

 the trees it will always present a neat appearance, owing to the 

 absence of shreds ; if soft matting be used for tying, it is quite 

 invisible to the eye a few feet from the wall, and if the ties 

 be properly made no branches will get displaced or injury be 

 done to the shoots. The strength of wire used by Mr. Holli- 

 day precludes all possibility of the shoot pulling it out of its 

 position. — Thomas Record. 



As regards trees grown in the open ground, they chiefly 

 take the form of high standards if, like orchard trees, they are 

 left unpruned — that is, they have a stem of variable length, 

 topped by a bulky head of rounded outline. It is necessary to 

 plant them at a considerable distance apart, and after all the 

 quantity of fruit coming from them will be but little in pro- 

 portion to the space they occupy, for the head, which consists 

 of confusedly intermixed branches, will not allow a free en- 

 trance to the light, and will bear fruit on the surface only. 

 If, on the contrary, by means of pruning we induce these trees 

 to assume the conical shape (in which the cones at the point 

 near the soil where they spring have a diameter equal to a 

 third of their height, a growth of their surface equal to that of 

 heads of high standards, and lastly, a regular dispersion of 

 the branches over the stem at such distances as to enable the 

 light to penetrate them throughout the whole of their length) , 

 the following advantages are obtained : The trees can be moved 

 nearer to each other, and they possess, by virtue of their 

 conical form, an expanse of development equal to that of the 

 high standards. A greater number of them can then be placed 

 over the same extent of ground, and, moreover, their branches 

 being more shone upon, a greater amount of fruit will be 

 yielded by each than in the case of orchard trees. Trees 



THE UTILITY OF PRUNING. 

 (Concluded from page 346.) 



trained on the double-espalier system with vertical cordons 

 give, in the latter respect, more satisfactory results than even 

 those trained on the conical method. We can, therefore, con- 

 clude from what has gone before, that pruning, by changing 

 the natural shape of trees, increases their fruit-bearing sur- 

 face without augmenting their extent, and thus enables us to 

 obtain a greater amount of fruit from the ground in which 

 they are grown. 



But whilst speaking here of the different forms given to the 

 framework of fruit trees, we feel it our duty to rise up in pro- 

 testation against an immoderate practice which is now-a-days 

 carried to the most extravagant bounds. On looking at the 

 fruit gardens of certain of our amateurs, one is almost led to 

 believe that the real end of pruning is the torturing and twist- 

 ing of the trees into more or less grotesque shapes. Many of 

 these are truly ingenious and pleasing to the eye, but one is 

 soon convinced that the time and care given to procure such 

 effects are not rewarded by a more abundant crop. The of tener 

 the main point is thus sacrificed for the sake of the outline, 

 do those who think that pruning is useless in regard to its 

 influence on the produce feel themselves more strengthened in 

 this opinion. The shape of the framework should not, there- 

 fore, be regulated by whim or fancifulhess. It should above 



