HOW ARE WE TO IMPROVE? 317 



small ornamental gardens near towns may gather fine fruit. 

 However this form is so well known, and has been so much 

 recommended for many years, that I shall now turn to the 

 third way of improving the culture of the Pear, and one 

 that has been comparatively neglected for some years past. 



I mean the Pear on walls. Here we are certainly behind- 

 hand, and do not appear to have made much progress for a 

 very long time. Perhaps it may be thought that the French 

 might dispense with walls ; but no such thing. They find 

 them indispensable for the perfect culture of the finer winter 

 Pears ; and were it not for their use, they could never obtain 

 such a stock of them as they have. Yet we have for a long 

 time past been paying attention to almost every kind of 

 garden improvement but this very important one. It is true 

 that walls are expensive, but once up it is a great pity to 

 neglect them ; and, apart even from garden walls, there are 

 numerous places with as much wall surface naked and use- 

 less as, if properly covered, would yield a good supply of 

 fruit to the family. Few things combine beauty and utility 

 more effectively than a well- covered wall of Pear trees ; and 

 the creation of such is not a matter of mystery or difficulty, 

 but what anybody can perform. With walls it may be 

 safely said that our climate is as good as that of northern 

 France. Indeed, there can be no doubt about it, as I and 

 many others have eaten as good fruit off well-managed English 

 wall-trees as ever grew; but unfortunately there is but 

 little attention paid to them compared to what they deserve. 

 Most large gardens would be benefited by having a much 

 greater proportion of wall-surface than they have at pre- 

 sent ; to many small ones they would prove a great ad- 

 dition. Fortunately, a recently-invented, or revived, process 

 offers an opportunity of building them very much cheaper 

 than before, and as good as could be desired. 



I allude to Tail's plan for making concrete walls, which 

 has not as yet been utilized by horticulturists, but which is 

 certain to prove of the greatest use to them, and to have a 

 marked influence on our horticulture for the future. I have 

 seen it employed with much success in the building of the 

 Emperor's model houses for workmen near the Bois de 



