MATERIAL FOR TYING PLANTS. 579 



Charmeux at Thomery. The walls there are very neatly 

 wired by its help, and it is equally useful for espaliers. I 

 have indeed never visited a garden in which the walls and 

 trellises were so neatly done, and all by means of this 

 simple strainer and the galvanized wire. Fig. 334 shows 

 the wire strained tight, and is a little more than half the size 

 I recommend. Messrs. J. B. Brown and Co., of 90, Cannon- 

 street, have at my request cast a great number of these, 

 and can supply them in any quantity and at a very low 

 rate. They are made of malleable cast-iron, and are gal- 

 vanized. The edges of the division in the head of this 

 little implement being sharp, those of the specimen I 

 brought from France were filed to prevent them cutting 

 the wire in the straining ; but any danger from this source 



Fig. 334. 



The simplest and best form of Raidisseur. 



is quite obviated by allowing the wire to be loose enough 

 to permit of one coil being wound round the neck of the 

 raidisseur before the real strain is applied. It is almost 

 needless to add that the wire is simply placed in the groove 

 in the head of the raidisseur, which is then turned, and 

 finally tightened with a key like that for the other forms. 



Material for Tying Plants. — The drop wears away the 

 stone in a far larger sense than is usually accepted with 

 this trite saying. Petty cares often help to wear away the 

 soul, and petty details occupy much of our life. Small 

 indeed, then, must be that which we can call beneath our 

 notice. The tying of plants, of fruit trees, of anything 

 and everything in a garden, is not often a conspicuous 

 effort ; but it occupies on the whole a great deal of time, 

 even in small places. In larger ones operations of this 



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