THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 8, 1858. 149 ! 
I 
strongly recommend them to anyone. Nothing can be more I 
simple than its use. 
The larger end has holes perforated in a tin plate, a few of 
which are left open, and into the others are fixed threads 
of worsted. The case is half-filled with sulphur, and the 
slightest shake dusts the Vines with the powdered contents. 
I should think an acre of Vines could be dusted in a day. Its j 
salutary effect is now established. j 
I found a very large breadth of land planted with Currants, 
the produce finding a ready sale in the Paris market for 
making the sirop cle Groseilles, which, mixed with water, 
forms one of the summer beverages of the Parisians. As a 
fruit, the Currant is never seen on the table. 
Apple and Pear trees abound, and the produce of the latter 
is little, if at all, inferior to the Pears of Jersey. I speak 
thus from last year’s experience, having had a box of the 
different kinds, containing 200 Pears, sent me as a present. 
I do not think they can be great in Apples, as they treat 
the fruit with indifference. 
I saw all the different kinds of vegetables, known amongst 
us, in cultivation ; and some few, but little used with us, 
l such as Artichokes and Cardoons, grown to a large extent. 
Everything in the open ground was some three weeks in 
advance of us in the neighbourhood of London, except the 
Vine, which not a little surprised me, as they produce ripe 
Grapes, in the open air, from six weeks to two months earlier 
than we can do by the best of management and in a pro¬ 
pitious season. 
The neighbourhood abounds in pretty seats, but the gardens 
and grounds are wanting in that neatness and elegance to 
which we are accustomed. There are, however, two great 
causes to which this may be attributed—the impossibility of 
obtaining a good grass lawn, and an entire absence of gravel. 
They require the moisture of our climate for the first, although 
I believe that an English gardener would be able to do much 
for them. I could find no one who possessed the slightest 
idea of laying down a lawn as practised with us. They 
simply adopt the primitive plan of digging, pulverising, and 
levelling the earth, and then sowing, as we should do for a 
crop of hay ; and, even when they get a tolerable crop of 
grass, they have no idea of a weekly rolling, watering, and 
cutting. 
In the place of gravel I found sand, generally loose ; quite 
innocent of a roller. When the walks w T ere on a declivity, 
this sand was regularly washed down, from the upper parts to 
the lower, by heavy rain. In a few gardens, where the owners 
spared no expense, I found river sand, in which were round 
pebbles—a costly article in that neighbourhood, but no im¬ 
provement. In no case could I find that it was a custom to 
use a roller ; nor did I anywhere even see that which no 
amateur in this country, who possessed a garden of the width 
of his house only, would dream of being without,—an iron 
roller. The only things I saw were primitive, home-made 
wooden ones, used chiefly to roll beds after sowing. 
That neatest of all edging, too, Box, is considered as old- 
fashioned, and seen but in the potagers , or kitchen-gardens ; 
and in its place they use an edging of their miserable grass, 
which grows long, thin, and lanky, like the hairs on the head 
of an octogenarian. But, even with these drawbacks, their 
intermural gardens look delightful. Every flower and every 
tree grows as though it had found a congenial soil. I visited 
one belonging to Monsieur De Lon, which was the most 
highly cultivated I have yet seen in any country. No one, 
with compass, rule, and pencil, could draw with more mathe¬ 
matical precision a form of espalier superior to that of every 
tree in this garden. 
The Peaches were pruned on the summer pinching system, 
so that the fruit grew from the main branches. Not a useless 
shoot was permitted. I found they always pinch above the 
third bud. One large wall contained a long row of single- 
stemmed trees, planted at a distance of two feet from each 
other, and trained at an angle of about 55°. The very in¬ 
telligent and amiable proprietor—a most enthusiastic amateur, 
—who was polite enough to play the part of cicerone, in¬ 
formed me that it was an admirable plan for quickly covering 
a wall; but the trees were of short duration, nor did they 
produce fruit equal to those on the older system. 
The borders round the walls were of the usual width ; but, 
in order to economise room and allow ample space for the 
superior fruits, he had planted, at a distance of about nine 
inches from the alleys, rows of Apple trees, the main stems of 
which were one foot high; from each of these there grew 
one branch only, trained horizontally, to a wire extending 
round the said borders, and supported at intervals of ten or 
twelve yards by short posts. Wlien the branch of one tree 
reached its neighbour, it was grafted on it; so that, eventually, 
from ten to a dozen trees so managed will form one entire 
tree, with ten to twelve separate roots. They were all in full 
blossom, and the effect was exceedingly pretty. The ad¬ 
vantage of the plan is evident. The air is not intercepted, 
either from the trees beyond or the crops on the borders. 
Of the espalier Pear and Plum trees, I cannot speak in 
sufficient admiration. The main stem of each tree is sup¬ 
ported by a three-pronged iron rod, of one inch diameter and 
about nine feet high. YY ires fastened to this rod, at about 
nine inches apart, were tightly secured to posts, firmly driven 
into the ground. To these wires were trained the branches, 
so that each tree takes this form : — 
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