456 



THE PEACH GARDENS OF MONTREUIL. 



tMck, forming a strong and presentable wall. The blocks 

 are sold at sixty francs per hundred. The walls are 

 about nine feet bigh^ and have a coping of plaster 

 six inches wide. Plaster is very cheap in the neigh- 

 bourhood, being dug up in quarries quite near to the gardens^ 

 and thus it is easy to form a neat and thin projection from 

 the ridge of plaster which forms the top of the wall, by 

 placing boards underneath till the coping sets. This pro- 

 tection is more necessary at the west and south than at the 

 east, the cold rains being more feared than frost, and more 

 difficult to guard against; for while a narrow coping will 



Fig. 272. 



Grafting hj approach to furnish bare spaces on the main branches of the 

 Peach Tree. The second spring after grafting, "when the Graft has 

 firmly united, the shoot D is cut at C, and B forms a well-placed shoot. 



save the trees from frost, it is not so effective against 

 driving cold rains. A finer crop could not be desired 

 than was visible everywhere here on the day of my visit, 

 5th July, 1868. It is particularly noticeable that, no matter 

 what form of tree is adopted, all the fruiting branches are 

 higher at the apex than the base, instead of pursuing the 

 horizontal line, as is the case with us. Perhaps to the 

 passing visitor some of the trees in their full summer dress 

 might appear to have their branches horizontally placed ; 

 but even in cases where there is most room for the 



