FRUIT AND KITCHEN GARDENS NEAR PARIS. 



219 



promising, is entirely cut back. The whole wall was furnished 

 with fine bearing wood, the pruning of which had been but 

 recently commenced. 



Fruit-trees in some of the quarters and peach-trees on walls 

 suffer from the dampness of the soil, or more especially the sub- 

 soil. The site is low and flat. Probably, the ground had been 

 dug out to raise the terraces of the palace. Peach-trees against 

 the walls do not long continue to thrive ; but the mode of 

 training them, somewhat like the Thomery vines, is not con- 

 ducive to the health of the peach-tree. There are some good 

 pyramid pear-trees in the quarters, and some have their branches 

 curved downwards, like those in the Society's garden. M. 

 Puteaux ties the pears on the branches of these pyramid trees, 

 to prevent them from being prematurely blown down. 



The quarters are surrounded by espaliers six feet high. 

 Wooden posts are driven into the ground as supports for the 

 trellising, and the whole has a neat appearance. By the side of 

 the central walk in this part of the gardens the espalier is partly 

 constructed of iron, strong bars forming arches from post to 

 post, surmounted by an iron top-rail. This contrasts strangely 

 with the simple upright and horizontal lines which the adjoining 

 espaliers exhibit. 



In some of the quarters inside these six-feet high espaliers 

 there are very dwarf ones, about sixteen feet apart, the spaces 

 between them being cropped with vegetables. These dwarf 

 espaliers are scarcely four feet high ; they are formed by posts 

 driven into the ground, and to these four small wooden rails are 

 fixed horizontally. Pear and apple-trees were trained against 

 them. Some of the trees appeared to be fifteen or twenty years 

 old. 



What is done at Versailles as regards espalier-training might 

 be very advantageously imitated in other large gardens, and for 

 small gardens no mode is so proper. If the trees be well managed, 

 they will almost support themselves by the time the first, and 

 not expensive, woodwork decays. They occupy comparatively 

 little space ; some crops can be grown almost close to them ; 

 and their appearance, loaded as they ought to be with fruit, 

 cannot certainly be deemed unsightly. 



We observed some pear-trees trained on espaliers, horizon- 

 tally it may be said, but with an important peculiarity. On 

 remarking them we were informed that their branches were 

 originally trained from the stem at an angle of 45° of elevation ; 

 but that they were afterwards brought to a horizontal position, 

 excepting the parts near the stem, which still retained almost 

 the original position. Although lowering the branches was, I 

 believe, an after-thought as regards these trees, yet I believe a 



