February  8,  1900. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
117 
DEGADENCB  IN  WALL  TREES. 
A  WRITER  to  the  general  Press  has  been  more  than  once  heard  to 
say  that  nothing  was  so  depressing  as  to  be  taken  no  notice  of;  to  be 
praised,  he  said,  was  gratifying,  as  it  appealed  to  one’s  vanity ;  to 
be  advei’sely  criticised  was  useful,  as  it  afforded  a  theme  for  another 
discourse ;  even  to  be  abused  a  little  was  helpful,  as  it  acted  as  a 
■stimulant;  but  to  be  ignored  was  positively  enervating.  If  I  were 
to  share  those  views  I  ought  to  be  doubly  thankful  to  Mr.  Oldhead, 
who,  on  page  93,  seems  both  to  chide  me  and  praise  me  for  the  commu¬ 
nication  on  page  52,  with  which  he  curiously  deals. 
First  he  would  seem  to  imply  that  wall  trees  are  all  right  if  you 
will  but  let  them  alone,  or  at  least  those  that  are  in  the  hands  of 
“  gardeners,”  and  not  a  slur  must  be  cast  on  their  vocation.  On  their 
“  vocation  ”  certainly  not.  Then  my  friendly  critic  alfects  not  to 
understand  what  a  “  modern  go-ahead  gardener  ”  is.  Has  he  nob  read 
the  Journal  of  Horticulture  wherein  the  “  modern  ”  has  declared  himself 
as  having  no  time  to  train  the  branches  of  fruit  trees  “  straight  as  a 
gun  barrel,”  as  Mr.  Temple  advised  on  page  77  ?  But  all  he  tries  to 
do  is  to  rush  them  up  the  wall  as  fast  as  he  can  to  get  fruit.  The 
shape  of  the  trees  and  the  regular  disposition  of  the  branches  are 
nothing  to  him  ;  he  simply  wants  fruit,  and  wants  it  quickly.  He 
obtains  it  quickly ;  but  he  does  another  thing,  though  that  does  not 
count  for  his  purpose — he  spoils  the  trees  quickly,  too. 
Perhaps  Mr.  Oldhead  is  a  comparatively  new  reader,  and  has  not  seen 
such  narratives  ;  but  if  he  is  not  a  very  young  gardener,  and  has  had 
reasonable  facilities  for  getting  about,  he  may  have  come  in  contact 
with  such  men  and  such  rapidly  “trained”  trees,  which,  for  the 
creditable  furnishing  of  walls  in  private  gardens,  are  exactly  what  they 
ought  not  to  be.  The  modern  fashion  is  to  adopt  the  market  growers’ 
plan  with  trees  and  Vines  :  run  them  up  quickly,  crop  them  early  and 
heavily,  exhaust  them  prematurely,  then  root  them  out  with  as  little 
compunction  aS  if  they  were  Cabbage  stumps,  and  plant  more. 
I  should  like  to  take  another  point  in  my  friend’s  letter.  I  refer  to 
him  as  “  friend  ”  for  his  being  so  good  as  to  enable  me  to  note  and 
subject  the  point  to  the  gentlest  of  analysis.  After  telling  us  in 
these  columns  of  the  “  epidemic  ”  of  neglected  wall  trees,  and  even 
approving  of  my  remarks  as  emljodying  an  elementary  lesson  and 
deserved  castigation  to  recalcitrants,  he  complacently  tells  us  that  the 
Journal  of  Horticulture  is  not  the  right  place  for  me  to  point  out  such 
shortcomings.  “  As  well,”  he  intimates,  “  address  my  remarks  to 
Queen  Victoria.”  Let  me,  in  reply,  say.  Not  quite;  for  has  he  not 
read,  as  most  old-headed  gs^deners  have,  over  and  over  again,  that  the 
wall  trees  of  the  Queen  are  proverbial  for  the  skill  displayed  in  their 
training  as  well  as  for  productiveness  ?  I  have  read  many  such  allu¬ 
sions  to  them,  and  have  often  thought  I  should  like  to  see  the  handiwork 
of  the  Royal  pruners  and  trainers  in  covering  garden  walls  attractively 
and  profitably  at  the  same  time. 
This  combination  is  to  be  found  in  other  gardens,  and  when  seen  is 
always  admired.  But  the  examples  are  few  in  comparison  with  those 
of  the  earlier  years  of  the  century  ;  then  they  were  the  rule,  but  now, 
unfortunately,  the  exception.  Practically  all  the  old  masters  in  train¬ 
ing  who  are  stilt  living  must  kriow  that  it  is  so,  admit  it,  and  regret  it; 
indeed  there  is  not  wanting  a  glimmer  between  the  lines  of  Mr.  Old- 
head’s  letter  that  he  is  one  of  them  ;  at  least  he  assumes  to  know  the 
cause  of  the  evil. 
As  to  the  suggestion  that  those  gardeners  who  have  not  acquired 
the  art  of  training  fruit  trees  as  objects  of  beauty  with  utility,  not 
bein^  readers  of  this  Journal,  I  am  able  to  assure  my  brief,  though 
livelL  critic  that  in  the  two  instances  of  spoiled  trees  specified  in  my 
notes  on  page  52,  both  gardeners  in  whose  charge  they  are  take  the 
paper  weekly,  and  as  one  of  them  had  received  a  private  lesson  on  the 
method  of  treating  the  trees  for  effecting  some  possible  improvement, 
he  was  not  surprised  by  the  reference  ;  nor  does  he  resent  it.  He  is  in 
many  respects  an  excellent  man,  a  splendid  plantsman,  and  good  Grape 
and  vegetable  grower,  but  in  his  training  in  three  gardens  bad  never 
had  a  lesson  in  the  proper  management  of  wall  trees  from  their  youth 
upwards,  and  had  never  had  the  subject  impressed  on  his  mind  as  one 
of  importance.  He  knows  it  is  now.  In  the  other  instance  the 
gardener  found  the  trees  in  the  deplorable  state  described,  and  is  doing 
his  best  with  them,  but  it  is  impossible  for  him  or  any  man  to  make 
them  what  they  ought  to  be.  It  may  perhaps  be  stated  as  a  fact,  and 
not  without  significance,  that  because  of  the  unsatisfactory  condition 
of  the  wall  and  other  trees,  the  nurseryman  who  supplied  them  was 
wrongly  blamed,  and  when  this  was  made  clear  the  real  spoiler  of  the 
trees  had  to  “  go.”  He  really  paid  little  or  no  heed  to  them,  his 
thoughts  and  sympathies  being  concentrated  in  other  directions. 
On  the  question  of  the  growths  of  fruit  trees  extending  3  or  4  feet 
above  the  top  of  a  wall,  which  trees  Mr.  Oldhead  imagines  cannot  be  in 
the  hands  of  a  “  gardener,”  I  have  no  objection  to  giving  him  an 
/  example  of  my  own  ignorance.  Half  a  dozen  years  ago  I  was  invited 
,by  a  gentleman  to  examine  his  garden  and  fruit  trees.  Fifty  or  more 
years  previously  the  Pears  on  a  long  but  not  very  lofty  wall  had  been 
beautifully  trained,  but  the  last  dozen  years  or  so  they  had  been  grossly 
neglected.  The  mansion  had  been  for  a  time  unoccupied,  and  the 
garden  let  to  a  local  greengrocer,  who  was  to  keep  the  trees  in  order. 
There  was  practically  no  growth  over  the  face  of  the  wall,  beyond 
dwindling  attenuated  spurs,  absolutely  incapable  of  bearing  fruit.  The 
^rees  grew  from  the  top  only  above  the  wall  every  summer,  and  the 
shoots  were  levelled  down  every  winter.  The  trees  were  like  top-heavy 
old  espaliers,  occasionally  seen  in  ancient  gardens,  and  which,  treated 
in  the  same  way,  bear  little  or  no  fruit.  . 
The  new  tenant,  who  had  taken  the  residence  for  fourteen  years, 
wished  to  know  how  the  old  trees  could  be  made  to  bear.  He  was 
advised  to  root  them  out  and  plant  cordons,  which  would  pay  him  over 
and  over  again  during  his  lease.  He  said  “  no,”  most  emphatically  ; 
he  was  not  going  to  plant  for  whoever  might  come  after  him.  He  was 
then  told  he  could  get  no  fruit  from  the  branches  of  the  trees  against 
the  wall,  but  might  have  Pears,  if  he  would  let  the  branches  grow 
above  it.  To  that  he  had  no  objection  at  all,  but  rather  liked  the  idea, 
as  the  fringe  along  the  top  would  form  a  screen  from  neighbouring 
windows. 
The  advice  thereupon  given  was  this.  Let  some  of  the  growths 
above  the  wall  remain  unshortened,  these  to  be  about  a  foot  apart. 
Cut  out  all  others  between  them,  and  permit  no  others  to  grow  in  their 
places,  but  rub  all  spring  shoots  that  threaten  to  do  so  clean  out  by 
their  sockets,  then  the  young  unshortened  branches  will  produce 
blossom  buds  in  two  years,  and  weather  permitting  bear  fruit.  The 
gardener  the  gentleman  brought  with  him  agreed.  There  is  now  a 
hedge  along  the  top  of  the  wall,  and  ten  times  more  fruit  has  been 
obtained  from  it  than  from  all  other  parts  of  the  trees,  or  than  they 
had  borne  for  five  years  previously. 
This  is  mentioned  for  two  reasons.  1,  To  show  that  I  am  not  a 
faddist  and  would  be  content  with  straight  equally  disposed  branches 
and  no  fruit.  2,  That  there  are  gardeners,  or  “  so-called,”  who 
really  would  allow  such  extensions  when  fruit  could  not  be  otherwise 
had  from  such  trees.  All  the  same,  it  would  have  been  better  to  plant 
cordons,  and  thus  render  the  wall  ornamental  and  useful,  as  all  the 
boundary  walls  of  gardens  ought  to  be — covered  from  base  to  summit 
with  straightly  trained  fruitful  branches,  whatever  form  the  trees  may 
be,  cordons,  horizontals,  fans,  or  palmetto  verriers. 
Mr.  A.  N.  Oldhead  will  note  the  singular  coincidence  that  my  initials 
are  the  same  as  his,  but  I  cannot  help  that ;  it  may  be  fortunate  in 
that  it  may  perhaps  dispose  him  to  treat  this  my  rejoinder  tenderly. 
—A.  N.  0. 
APPLES  AND  FROZEN  WATER  PIPES 
SPLITTING. 
With  regard  to  the  differing  views  held  by  your  correspondents,  as 
to  when  water  contracts  and  when  it  expands,  is  it  not  possible  that 
both  factions  may  be  partly  right  F  I  believe  it  is  a  well  understood 
chemical  law  that  water  reaches  its  maximum  density  at  4°  Cent.,  or 
39’2°  Fahr. ;  and  being  an  exception  to  all  other  liquids,  expands  both 
above  and  below  that  temperature,  so  that  the  water  pipes  of  “  A.  D,,” 
and  the  thin-skinned  Apples  of  “  H.  Richards  ”  might  both  have  been 
burst  by  the  same  means — namely,  the  expansion  of  water. 
I  scarcely  think  that  Mr.  Richards  has  ever  seen  a  frozen  pipe 
burst  by  applying  heat  to  it,  as  the  ice  would  first  have  to  be  thawed, 
and  then  the  water  heated  to  39  2^  before  it  began  to  expand  again,  and 
it  would  require  considerable  heating  to  cause  it  to  occupy  a  space 
greater  than  that  taken  up  by  the  ice.  He  probably  did  not  notice 
that  the  pipe  was  burst  till  the  water  began  to  leak  out. 
I  rather  fancy  that  Mr.  Richards  would  have  to  plug  up  his  pipe  at 
both  ends  to  prevent  any  escape,  and  then  boil  the  water  in  it  to  get  it 
to  burst.  However,  to  some  of  us,  who  may  have  neither  time  nor 
inclination  to  amuse  ourselves  with  water  pipes,  marmalade  jars  and 
tobacco  tins,  the  word  of  those  scientists  who  have  made  a  study  of  the 
subject  is  sufficient. — A.  Day,  Herts. 
Ere  “  rushing  in”  with  another  moral  to  adorn  this  lively  tale,  one 
would  like  to  propound  another  question,  the  answer  to  which  should 
throw  some  light  upon  the  matter — viz.,  What  killed  the  man  who  fell 
from  the  church  steeple  ?  was  it  the  fall  or  the  sudden  stop  ?  I  think 
Mr.  Richards  will  admit  that,  as  a  rule,  the  effect  of  frost  is  not  easily 
seen  until  the  thaw  sets  in ;  but  that  the  effects  are  there,  whether  it  be 
ruptured  vegetable  tissue  or  fractured  pipes,  seems  to  be  clear.  That 
the  application  of  heat,  whether  of  solar  rays  on  the  one  hand  or  of 
fire  heat  on  the  other,  accentuates  the  evil  is  obvious. 
Heat  expands  some  objects,  if  there  is  room  for  expansion,  but  if 
frost  has  not  room  for  expansion  it  will  split  a  mountain  to  vent  its 
mighty  force.  With  heat  this  is  not  the  case,  unless  there  is  room  to 
generate  steam,  then  it  would  disembowel  the  earth  itself.  The  hardest 
nuts  to  crack  are  often  minus  a  kernel,  but  if  Mr.  Richards  will  tackle 
this  one  he  will  doubtless  be  rewarded  for  his  pains,  although  it  may 
somewhat  painfully  shatter  his  statement,  “  Engineers  always  leave 
vent  for  expansion.”  Thirty  years  ago  there  was  a  system  of  hot- 
water  heating  on  the  Continent  which  comprised  a  popper  boiler  and  a 
single  6' inch  copper  pipe  carried  the  length  of  the  plant  house.  These 
— boiler  and  pipe — were  filled,  absolutely  filled,  when  fixed  (no  room 
for  expansion,  no  room  for  steam,  no  room  for  anything). and  then 
hermetically  sealed,  and  in  the  normal  course  of  things  not  touched 
afterwards.  By  this  system,  if  memory  serves  aright,  it  is  possible  to 
raise  the  heat  of  water  to  about  600°  Cent.  This  system  was  described 
(and  illustrated  to  the  best  of  recollection)  in  the  “  Revue  de  I’Horti- 
culture  Beige,”  a  monthly  magazine  which  then  (thirty  years  since) 
filled  up  a  niche  in  the  bothy  leisure  of — A.  N.  Oldhead. 
