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THE IMPERIAL FRUIT AND 



of the larger forms. It should be borne in mind that 

 planting erect cordons close together^ as they must be 

 planted^ involves a great expense which is avoided by 

 using trees of a fuller development. It takes a good many 

 years to form the large style of tree usually adopted^ 

 and therefore I advise the general planting of these inter- 

 mediate forms. 



Nothing can be neater alongside garden walks than lines 

 such as these trained on the trellis alluded to. There is 

 no shaking about of rough irons or wooden beams^ no 

 falling down or loosening of the wires ; the fruit is firmly 

 attached and safe from gales^ the wood is fully exposed, 

 and the trellis when well covered forms an elegant dividing 

 line in a garden. The best way to place them is at from 

 three to six feet from the edge of the walk, and if in the 

 space between the espalier and the walk a line of the cor- 

 dons elsewhere recommended be established; the effect and 

 result will prove very good indeed In some cases where 

 large quantities of fruit are required, it may be desirable to 

 run them across the squares at a distance of fifteen or 

 eighteen feet apart. The principle is quite simple, the proof 

 of which is that the trellises at Versailles were erected 

 by the garden workmen. M. Hardy, the head gardener at 

 Versailles, is the son of the celebrated writer on fruit trees 

 of that name, and has had much experience in fruit growing. 

 " These trellises,^'' says he, ^' are the cheapest as well as the 

 most ornamental that we have yet succeeded in making, 

 and the trees which I plant against them are of the form 

 that I prefer to all others, for promptly furnishing walls 

 and trellises, and for yielding a great number of varieties in 

 a comparatively restricted space.^^ The mode of employing 

 the uprights of pine wood painted green and reaching from " 

 the top of the trellis to within six inches of the ground, is 

 not a common one, though very desirable where the erect 

 way of training the shoots is practised. The reader will 

 readily perceive that this system combines the advantages of 

 the cordon and the large tree. Of course many other 

 forms, or any form, may be used with this system of trel- 

 lising, with slight modifications to suit different kinds of 



