1876. ] 
WIEINa GAEDEN WALLS. 
259 
heart. If a pot gets heavy by drip, I put it out in drying weather, and if there 
is none, I place it in the kitchen window for two or three days, and it soon dries. 
It will not excite the plant before January. 
Be very particular about appearances—this presupposes cleanliness, which is 
grace and health in the vegetable, as in the animal world. Everything about the 
Auricula, which is itself a plant of the very neatest habit, should be always in 
the best order. A great deal of pleasure is lost in a collection untidily though 
otherwise correctly kept. 
We have little enough to cheer us in November, and even a small gain in 
arranging styles of foliage among Auriculas is too much to lose. How enviable 
just now is the happy man who grows Chrysanthemums!—F. D. Hoenee, Kirlchy 
Malzeard^ Ripon. 
WIRING GARDEN WALLS. 
|T is surprising that, notwithstanding all that has been said against the use 
of shreds for wall-trees, the driving and drawing of nails, &c., the nail and shred 
system should still be so generally practised, defacing the walls, and making 
nests for vermin, to say nothing of the unsightly appearance which results ; 
and all this when wiring is now done so neatly, and at such small expense, and 
is found to answer the purpose admirably. This practice of training with shreds 
and nails must be adhered to with such stoical tenacity because of its antiquity. 
Happily in new gardens generally, wiring is becoming very common, and as the 
material can be bought at such a small sum, and fixed by handy labourers, the 
time will surely come when the old nailing system with shreds will be a thing of 
the past. No. 13 wire, fixed with studs and tightened by radisseurs, and run 
through at about 10 in. apart or less—or say twenty wires to each wall—can 
be finished ready for the trees at a cost of about £15 per acre, both sides of the 
walls being wired. It can be put as close to the brick or stone-work as is neces¬ 
sary to be beneficial to the trees, and is as advantageous as the best training with 
nails and shreds. Indeed, in the southern portion of the kingdom it is much 
better for both fruit and trees when the branches are not quite close to the walls. 
The fine fruit we often see on long rough spurs is evidence in support of this 
assertion. 
Another method of training trees—one which till recently I had always prac¬ 
tised—was to use nails, driving them in straight lines, either for fan or horizontal 
trees, and placing them equidistant; then, when young wood was laid in annually, 
and that of the previous year cut out, the old nails remained untouched, as the 
young wood was arranged to fit the position whence the old wood was cut out. In 
the case of spurred trees, the labour of training was nominal, as, by using strong 
ties, the branches might remain untouched for years, untying being only resorted 
to when it became necessary to replace an old rod by a young one, or when the 
bark was in danger of being injured for want of room in the ties. 
The No. 13 wire, for Espaliers, tightened either with screws or radisseurs, is 
BB 2 
