J6 



APPLE. 



kinds ; — either way, carefully exeeuted, generally 

 succeeds. 



Fruit trees, planted and trained as espaliers, is a 

 plan long ago borrowed from the French. It is a 

 neat and convenient method, especially in small gar- 

 dens ; occupying but little space, and, at the same 

 time, serving the purpose of a screen, a fence, or a 

 boundary to the different compartments of a garden. 

 Dwarf maiden trees are preferred for espaliers, and 

 are either trained in the fan manner, or with an 

 upright central stem, with branches led off in oppo- 

 site pairs, horizontally. The latter method is most 

 commonly adopted ; it being most symmetrical, and 

 withal the easiest to give, and most suitable for train- 

 ing upon the rails, as they are usually constructed. 

 The most simple kind of espalier rail is composed of 

 straight six feet stakes, driven into the ground, at 

 about a foot apart, connected by a saw-cut fillet, or 

 ledge, along the top, which is nailed to each stake. 

 When the stakes are driven, and the fillet nailed on, 

 the latter should be about five feet high — mere or less, 

 however, according to the size of the garden. Es- 

 palier rails are also formed by the carpenter, of 

 squared scantling, painted, and have a very neat ap- 

 pearance. A still lighter frame is formed of flat iron 

 uprights (fixed in wood pattens), and quarter-inch 

 horizontal wires, along which the branches are 

 trained. 



Training on trellises is also a favourite scheme in 

 French gardening. Even the walls about Montreuil 

 are covered with trellis work, at some distance from 



