20 



CASSELL'S POPULAE GAEDENING. 



Fig. 28.— Espalier Tree. 



For trees with open centres of large size this is the 

 best method, and the sUghtest assistance in removing 

 the outer portions of hark wherever the main branches 

 cross each other, and then binding closely together, 

 would result in a series of almost natural gTafts, that 

 would enable the vase Apple-tree to stand steady 

 agaihst the most violent 

 attacks of wind and 

 storm. 



In open and exposed 

 districts this method of 

 making dwarf trees per- 

 fectly self - supporting 

 should be more generally 

 adopted. The mere 

 adoption of the vase 

 form, by bringing and 

 keeping the trees so near 

 to the ground, and the 

 resistance their well- 

 furnished sides offer to 

 the force of the wind, 

 are powerful arguments 

 in favour of such forms 

 as well as cordons. 

 While crops are fre- 

 quently wrecked within 

 sight of fruit store, on 

 tall orchard trees, and 

 even on pyramids, those 

 on bushes, dwarf stan- 

 dards, vases, pyramids, 

 and espaliers,mostly 

 escape. 



The Formation of 

 Apple-trees for Es- 

 paliers and Walls. 



— ^This form of tree, for 

 they are both alike, is 

 less common than it was, 

 the other forms already 

 illustrated and described 

 having largely super- 

 seded this older and still 

 very ^lsef ul form ; though 



until a very recent period the horizontal or fan- 

 shaped espalier, and the standard and dwarf orchard 

 trees, were almost the only forms known to Apple- 

 growers. Now there is considerable danger of all 

 these being wholly superseded by cones, bushes, 

 and cordons. This would be a misfortune, for the 

 old form has merits of its own very favom-able to the 

 growth of Apples and Pears in unfavourable locali- 

 ties. Horizontal training, the only form dealt with 

 here, may be described as a sort of multiple cordon 



training. Each branch should resemble a cgrdon m 

 its fertility from base to summit, and the summer 

 pinching and winter pruning may be exactly the ^me 

 as if each branch were independent of the parent tree. 

 The one root having thus virtually many semi-mde- 

 pendent cordons to support, the latter— that is, the 

 branches — make less 

 wood than cordons with 

 independent root - force 

 all and wholly to them- 

 selves are too prone to 

 do. Backed up against , 

 walls or espalier raUs, - 

 now mostly formed of 

 iron, this form of tree is 

 fully exposed to aU the 

 light and heat the cli- 

 mate affords, and hence 

 the finest Apples, such 

 as the Eibston, Golden, 

 and Newtown Pippins, 

 may be thoroughly 

 ripened in many locali- 

 ties in which it would be 

 hopeless to attempt their 

 cultivation on any other 

 shaped trees. The 

 semi-skeleton form, and 

 the long far-extending 

 branches to right and 

 left of their boles, hit 

 the happy mean between 

 the diffusion and con- 

 centration of vital force 

 most favourable to health 

 and fertility. The cor- 

 don, unless worked oh a 

 dvraxflng stock and skil- 

 fully managed, is apt to 

 break away into an ex- 

 cess of vigour, or pine 

 and dwindle under its 

 severe repression. But 

 espalier and wall trained 

 Apple-trees escape these 

 dangers, and continue to 

 yield magnificent crops of fruit for a quarter or even 

 half a century. 



Not a few of the older cultivators believed that the 

 older the trees the higher-flavoured the fruit. Pos- 

 sibly ; but in any case a few fine Apple-trees on espa- 

 liers or walls were invaluable in refilling the fruit 

 stores year after year with fruit far above the average 

 of much of that gathered now. 



The mode of forming espalier and wall trees may 

 be said to be identical in its main principles with that 



Fig. 29.— Espalier or 'Wall Tree. 



