Book I 



WALLS. 



•169 



where they meet at right angles, a wall (Jig. 425. a), is extended 

 diagonally about seventeen feet. This extension is found very 

 useful in breaking the force of the wind when ranging along 

 the walls. At the same time it does away, in a considerable 

 degree, the formal box-shape of the garden when viewed from 

 the higher grounds in the neighborhood. (Ed, Encyc. art. 

 Hort.) 



2456. With respect to the cojnng of garden-walls, Nicol ob- 

 serves, " much has been said, and opinions are at variance. 

 Some insist that the coping should not project beyond the 

 face of the wall ; and others, that it should project several 

 inches, in order to throw the drip off the foliage. Others, 

 again, give it a slope to the north, or to the west side, in 

 order to throw all the water to the first aspect, or to that 

 not covered with trees. It may be right to throw the whole 

 of the water to the side not covered with fruit-trees ; but it is wrong to throw it all 

 to the worst aspect, if that aspect be planted, by being disadvantageous to the trees trained 

 on it, if there be any disadvantage in the rains falling upon them ; which, indeed, is ques- 

 tionable, except, perhaps, just when the fruit is ripening off. Tlie quantity of rain that 

 falls on an ordinary wall, is but trifling ; and if even a light breeze of wind prevail at the 

 time, it is generally dashed against the foliage in dripping, or is scattered and dissipated. 

 In short, it is quite as well for the trees that there be no projection at all, if the coping be 

 fixed. A temporary coping of boards, projecting perhaps a foot or eighteen inches, may 

 be of service to the trees in spring, while in bloom, in repelling the perpendicular frosts, 

 that are often injurious to them at that time, and to the tender fruit. But such frosts are 

 less hurtful than baneful frosty winds, which fall not perpendicularly, and which are better 

 warded off by screens." [Kal. p. 146.) 



2457. Fixed copings are disapproved of by Forsyth, especially when they project so far 

 as they are generally made to do. " I would rather advise to have a moveable wooden 

 coping, fixed on with iron hooks, fastened to pieces of wood, built into the top of the wall ; 

 these copings would also be found very convenient to fasten the nettings, &c. to in spring, 

 for sheltering the fruit-trees. If, however, any should prefer fixed copings, they should 

 not project above an inch on each side of the wall ; this small projection will be sufficient 

 to preserve the wall, and will not prevent the dew and rain from falling on the upper part 

 of the trees, which is of great service to them." 



2458. Cojnngs which jyroject nearly afoot are approved of by the Comte Lelieur, and the 

 Rev. T. G. Cullum. In the best peach-gardens at Montreuil they project four or five 

 inches ; and at Thomery, where the finest grapes are raised, the copings project ten or eleven 

 inches over walls which do not exceed eight feet in height. (Pom. Eranfaise, p. 78.) T. G. 

 Cullum has built, in Suffolk, a nine-inch wall with rounded piers, and copings of slate 

 supported by oaken brackets, projecting a foot from the wall. The result answered his 

 expectations. (Hort. Trans, iv. 269.) 



2459. Estimate of opinions as to copings. On the whole, it appears both from the ex- 

 perience of a number of gardeners, and the most correct theories of dew ( Wells on Deiv, 

 1819, see 1243.) and cold {Leslie, in Supp. Encyc. art. Cold), that projecting copings are 

 of use in spring to protect the blossoms from descending cold and dews ; but as the 

 copings must be injurious in summer by excluding light, rain, and air, and harboring ver- 

 min, we should prefer the temporary coping of boards recommended by Miller, Forsyth, 

 and Nicol. 



2460. irith respect to the materials for kitchen-garden walls, brick is almost universally 

 preferred ; Forsyth says, " Where brick cannot be got, it is better to dispense with walls 

 altogether, or to adopt wooden ones." " Brick," Nicol states, "is best for the superstruc- 

 ture, and stone for the foundation and basement. Bricks give more warmth, and answer 

 better for training trees to than stone. South, east, and west aspects should therefore be 

 faced with brick, if the wall be not entirely built of it. If the wall be built entirely of 

 stone, or be backed with stone, or be faced with bricks, and if trees are to be trained 

 against such backing, the stones should be run in regular courses of from four to seven 

 or eight inches thick, and each fifteen or twenty inches in length, by which there may be 

 a frequency in joints, and that the trees may be properly trained against the wall." 



24fil. Dark-colored whinstonc (greenstone or basalt) is the next best material to brick, when properly 

 squared and hammer-dressed, as it absorbs heat ; and next to that, a kind of bluish-grey stone (sandstone 

 flag), or, in parts of the country consisting of primitive rocks, clay-slate that rises in natural flags, the thick- 

 ness or nearly the thickness, of bricks, and which require but little dressing, or trouble in building. The 

 nearer the stone approaches to black, the more valuable it is for the purjiose ; the prefcjcnce being given to 

 the darkest whinstone, merely because it absorbs c.nd retains heat more than liglit- colored stones, and by 

 reason of its close texture or grain, repels moisture better, or retains less of it than other stones. But good 

 durable freestone (sand-stone), being properly squared, hammer-dressed, and run in courses as above, makes 

 a very good wall for training the more common kind of fruits to ; such as apples, cherries, pears, and plums, 

 and may answer verv well for east, west, and north aspects. But the better aspects, as south, south east, or 



H h 3 



f 



