Chap. XXV.] IMPLEMENTS USED IN FRENCH GARDENS. 453 



all danger is past, and not suffer from want of light near the top 

 of the wall, as they would if such a wide protection were perma- 

 nent. I believe that similar copings would be much more effective 

 than any of the netting and canvas protections now in use in 

 English gardens. The commonest temporary coping seen in 

 France is made of straw nailed between laths ; it seems to answer 

 its purpose very well, but it is not so neat as that made of bilu- 

 menised felt. Whatever kind of protection may be employed, 

 care is taken that 



it shall throw 

 the wet well off 

 the wall ; the 

 slightest experi- 

 ence of the effects 

 of frost on vege- 

 tation wili show 

 the wisdom ~ of 

 this course. Of 

 what does it avail 

 to place a net or 

 a few branchlets 



r 



Mode of Protecting Walls. A, Straw Mat, two feet wide, held 

 between laths, for placing beneath the perma7ient copings while 

 there is danger of Frost, 



of trees before a fruit-wall, if we allow the cold rains and sleet 

 to fall on every tender brush of stamens ? 



WiEiNG GrAKDEN-WALLS. — The One practice among French hor- 

 ticulturists most worthy of adoption by the English fruit-grower 

 is their improved way of placing galvanised wires on walls, or 

 in any position in which it may be desired to train fruit-trees 

 neatly. Several strong iron spikes are driven into the brick- 

 .work at the ends — in the right angle formed by two walls — 

 nails with eyes in them being driven in in straight lines, 

 exactly in the line of direction in which the wire is wanted to 

 pass. The wires are placed at about ten inches apart on the 

 walls, and the little hooks for their support, also galvanised, are 

 fixed at about ten feet apart along each wire. The exact distance 

 between the wires must, however, be determined by the kind of 

 tree and the form to be given to it. If horizontal training of the 

 branches be adopted, the wires had better be placed to form the 

 lines which we wish the branches to follow ; if the branches are 

 vertical we need not be so exact. The wire — about as thick as 



2 H 



