424 



FRUIT-TREES FOR ESPALIERS AND DWARFS. 



that shoot in three or, at most, four years ; and as the permanent trees encroach 

 on the temporary ones on each side, the latter can be taken out one at a 

 time, so as never to leave an unseemly blank on the wall. 



892. Training^ in the case of walls twelve feet high and upwards, should 

 be the fan manner for the peach, nectarine, early apricots, and figs ; the 

 half-fan for the stronger apricots, plums, cherries, the more delicate pears, 

 and the mulberry ; and the horizontal manner for the apple and the greater 

 number of pears. 



893. Planting. — The plants should be placed on hillocks higher or lower 

 according to the depth which the ground has been moved in preparing the 

 border, in order that in two or three years, when the ground shall have 

 finally settled, the collar or part of the stem whence the first roots proceed 

 shall be between two inches and four inches above the general surface of the 

 ground. The distance of the collar from the wall, when newly planted, 

 should be for the more delicate-growing trees, such as the peach, from six 

 inches to nine inches ; and for the more vigorous-growing kinds, such as the 

 apple, pear, and cherry, from nine inches to a foot. We say nothing as to the 

 season of planting, or the mode of performing the operation, these and every 

 part of culture generally applicable to ligneous plants, having been treated of 

 in detail in those parts of the work with which the reader is supposed to be 

 already familiar. 



SuBSECT. II. — Fruit-trees for espaliers and dwarfs. 



894. Espaliers are commonly planted in lines parallel to the main walks in 

 kitchen -gardens ; and next to the boundary -wall, and the correctly-edged 

 and highly-kept gravel-walks, there is nothing which so much characterises 

 the garden of a private gentleman, and distinguishes it from that of the 

 market-gardener. No person, we think, who has a cultivated feeling for 

 regularity and harmony of forms and lines, can think a walled kitchen- 

 garden complete without espalier-railings bordering the walks. Lines of 

 dwarf fruit-trees, or of fruit-shrubs, such as the gooseberry and currant, are 

 so far good ; but they are far from having the effect of espalier- railings. 

 Their forms bear no relation to that of the walls, whereas the espaliers are 

 counterparts of them, and keep up the harmony of form. There is com- 

 monly an espalier-rail on both sides of all the walks, excepting the sur- 

 rounding one next the wall-border. On that border espalier-trees are not 

 generally planted, though there are some exceptions. The espalier-rail is 

 generally placed at three feet or four feet distant from the walk, and on the 

 iimer side of the rail there is commonly a foot- path, two feet wide, at two or 

 three feet distance ; so that these trees have a space eight feet wide, which may 

 be considered as exclusively devoted to their roots. If the main walks are 

 of flag-stone, supported on piers, or if they are formed of a thin layer of 

 gravel on good soil, then we may add half the width of the walk, in addition 

 to that already mentioned. If the six feet of border is not dug and cropped, 

 but only slightly manured on the surface, and once a year gently stirred 

 with the three-pronged fork, the trees will bear abundantly ; but if the 

 ground is dug and cropped, or if flowers are grown on it, the crop, from 

 the roots being forced to descend to the subsoil, and to produce more wood 

 than they can properly ripen, and the trees being thus forced to take a 

 habit of luxuriance rather than of fruitfulness, the fruit produced will be 

 few and without flavour. 



