FORCING GARDENS AT VERSAILLES. 



427 



culture. The finest stores of pears I have ever seen were in 

 gardens with a good length of tree trained in this manner ; 

 and I know few places in France where the espalier 

 system is so extensively and so well carried out as here. 

 The form here represented is much better than the cordon 

 or single-branched Pear tree^, because a more free and 

 natural development is allowed to the tree^ and at the same 

 time the trellis is covered quickly^ and a considerable variety 



Fig. 243. 



TrelUs for Pear Trees : ten feet high. Uprights and stays of T-iron, horizontal 

 lines slender galvanized wire ; vertical lines, pine-wood half an inch square 

 and painted green : to these the ascending branches are trained. 



of fruit may be obtained from a small space. It is very 

 extensively adopted by M. Hardy^ upon walls as well as on 

 the neat and elegant trellis^ of which he has constructed so 

 much. Of course the Palmette Verrier, the fan, or any 

 other form_, may be trained on these trellises, but decidedly 

 the best are such as combine the advantages of quick 

 covering and early productiveness claimed for the cordon, 

 and the fuller development and more pleasing appearance 



