incommodated You are to chuse your Poles for this purpose of Chest-nut or of Elm which also are to be pill'd and without any Bark and it would moreover be very good to lay them a long time in water before you use them for Elm especially grows very hard after having been seasoned in water and lasts much longer you may also make use of Sallows and all other sorts of wood provided the Poles be very straight Great laths of Oak painted green and fastned with Wire are likewise sometimes made use of in this kind of Work 7. The second way which is done with leathers and nails is more proper because it is not at all discerned when the Tree is again covered with his leaves and moreover one may by this means more easily place the branches exactly as he desires but this cannot be made use of but upon Walls that are shot over with plaister for as much as otherwise the nails cannot hold and moreover it costs thrice the time the others do and therefore is by no means proper for those who have a great many Espalliers to order 8. The third way which is done with Sheep-shancks fastned in the Walls is doubtless the best and most commodious of all and that which is done with least charge but the bones must be set so near together as not to be above four or five inches from one another to the end that they may every where be met with where a branch is to be tyed otherwise the Trees can never be laid in any tolerable order These ought to be placed in the Wall in the order of Quincunx and set so far in withal that they may not stand out above an inch or very little more which is sufficient to fasten a Branch to with an Ozier a Withy a Bull-rush or Spanish Broom and it were to be wisht that they were placed in building the Walls for they can never be so rightly placed when they are already built There are who instead of these bones make use of little sticks of Dog-tree or heart of Oak but the bones are much better smoother and more commodious and cost less than all the rest 9. You are to raise the Trees you pallisado after the Figure of an expanded hand or of a Fan spread out to the utmost so that the middle branch be always higher than the rest and that ought never to be bowed but to be stopt in its speed at the top when it aspires too high for fear lest in drawing too much nourishment the Tree should want it below and not put out branches enough to furnish the sides after which you must draw out and spread the branches in such sort that the extremities be always ty'd higher than the place where they part from the Tree that is to say you are never to bow them downward for naturally all Trees tend upward and shoot their branches that way so that if you should force them to return towards the earth that contrariety would exceedingly hurt them You are also to take heed that the middle of the branch be not bowed in such sort that the two extremities be lowest and by no means suffer the branches to cross or be laid over one another which is commonly seen in Espalliers that are not very carefully lookt to and in the mean time it is impossible the Trees should prosper when put into so incommodious a posture The branch is therefore to be extended in a right line from the Stem where it comes out to its utmost extremity still mounting a little upward but very little for if it were carried up too straight the bottom of the Tree would be wholly disfurnisht and disspoyled of its due ornament and proportion 10. You must begin to pallisado the lower branches within half a foot of the earth and so continue them up to the top and to the end that the Tree may furnish it self in the lower parts and shoot forth branches on either side you ought to stop the extremities of the Graft in pinching them with your nails so soon as it shall be shot up two or three inches high as shall be better explained when we come to speak of Pepin-fruits 11. Rightly to understand how to raise a Tree you are necessarily to know how it is to be cut and in that principally does consist the care that is to be taken about Espalliers To which end you are to consult the 30th Article of the Chapter of Standards for although the pruning of those and of Espalliers are very different in many things they have nevertheless some relation and the Gardiner who knows what Figure his Tree ought to bear knows also very near what branches ought to be taken away In the first place you are never to suffer any branch on the back-side of the Tree that is to say betwixt the Wall and it nor on the fore-part neither but on the two sides only Secondly you must take away or stop all the branches that shoot out in length without putting out on the sides and that are not sufficiently furnisht with leaves and little springs in their extention for otherwise it will fall out that the middle of the Tree will be in a manner naked and cannot recloath it self with leaves or fruit Which Rule is to be observed for all sorts of Trees but principally Peaches as to which if this particular care be not taken you will presently see neither fruit nor leaf but at the extremities of the branches only 12. The principal pruning of Trees ought to be in the decrease of the Moon in January and February and if the Trees be weak you are always to stay till the decrease of February lest the cold should pierce into the wounds after they are cut nay it is oft-times better to stay till the decrease of March for the cutting of the Tree it imports not though it were already in the blossom 13. In this Season you are to take away all the superfluous branches that would deface the Figure of the Tree stop the good that shoot out too far and prune away all the ill wood which was of the August-shoot that never bears fruit and does only burthen and incommodate the Tree because it has not had heat to mature it and according to the Gardiners phrase is not sufficiently Augusted In a word to speak properly there is only this one Season for pruning for as much as during the rest of the year we never cut off any branches but only stop and hinder them from shooting irregularly and to ill effect 14. In pruning you are evermore to spare those Branches which are nearest to bearing which after you have been a while used to Trees will easily be distinguisht from others Those who covet to have long fruits ought to consider the little branches which are short and well-liking and full knotted with Blossoms and that grow nearest to the Bole of the Tree as fittest to gratifie their desire of which knots or buttons
plant an Espallier is to observe is to expose it to a good aspect of the Sun Art and labour can effect all other necessary things in any situation whatever but for this it is impossible to have it if we do not meet him at his first arrival 2. There are two good Positions which ought always to be observed in the planting of Espalliers in Gardens and that may also indifferently serve for all other sorts of Plantations of which the first is that which has the Sun full upon it at his first rising or presently after and retains it till two or three of the clock in the afternoon the second is that which begins to receive the Sun about ten a clock in the morning and loses it not till it go down These two Positions are almost equally good for they have the one as much heat as the other though there is notwithstanding a certain principal vertue observed in the rising Sun which causes those Espalliers which are exposed unto it to be both sooner ripe and of a better colour than those in the other Position which also proceeds from this that at the end of Winter and in the beginning of the Spring the Sun dwells much longer upon this Position than upon the other for it almost continually shines upon it from the rising to the setting The second Position has also another advantage particular to it which is that it is less exposed to the danger of frosts than the other by reason that the frost does little harm to Trees in the Spring unless the Sun dash upon them whilst the frost is yet hanging on for then the two contrary qualities of heat and cold beget a conflict which the Tree is so sensible of that the leafs and blossoms thereof appear stricken and blasted but when the frost dissolves of it self before the Sun comes to shine upon it it does no harm at all and afterwards drops off as innocently as dew The first Position receiving the Sun from its first rising if there have a frost hapned in the night upon the Trees they are then subject to this accident but on the contrary the Sun only beginning to shine upon the second at ten or eleven of the clock if a frost have hapned in the night it is absolutely thawn and dissolved of it self before the Sun comes to strike upon it There are also some Soyls so burning that the first Position is too hot so that oft times the fruits by the excessiveness of the heat cannot arrive at their full proportion and fairness But to conclude all things duly considered the first is the better for fruits that require a very hot Sun as * A Musk Cherry also a Muscadine grape Muscats and Peaches and the second is as much to be esteemed for Pears 3. These two Positions are the best of all others not only in respect to the heat of the Sun which is doubtless the principal reason but also because they defend the Espalliers from the North and Northwest winds which are the worst for frosts especially the Northwest which commonly blows in the Spring and which is so much the more dangerous because it very often brings with it a frost after little rains which soften the Trees and render them more penetrable and apt to freeze Of these two Positions the first is totally covered from that and the second from the North. 4. All the principal and most delicate fruits as Peaches Pavies Bonchrestiens and Bergamots ought to be plac'd in these Positions There are others nevertheless which are not wholly to be rejected and may do very well for more hardly fruits as all Summer-Pears and some Winter-Pears also as shall be explained in the Catalogue of Fruits 5. The place being thus chosen the Wall which is to support the Espallier must be twelve or thirteen foot high to the end the Tree may have its utmost stretch when it shall come to perfection It ought also to be pargeted or rough-cast either with Plaister or Lime not for ornament only and to make it more handsom but also by reason that a thousand mischievous things snails worms and other corruptions breed in Walls that are made of mud only and Rats Mice and other Vermine shelter themselves in the holes and cavities which they there find and very much annoy the fruits If in building these Walls you would there place little Sheep-shancks in the Order of a Quincunx the Lozenges whereof to be four or five inches square and those to peep an inch only out of the rough-cast you would find them of great use and the Pallisado of your Trees would be made at much greater ease and much less expence 'T is true one may make shift to fasten them into the Walls already made but never in so good order as if plac'd in building the Wall The use of these Sheeps-bones shall be explained when we come to speak of the manner after which Espalliers ought to be Pallisado'd 6. These things thus done nothing more remains but only to prepare the earth of which there is some so good of it self as seems to require no manner of help and to be capable of producing fruits in their greatest excellence without other assistance than the ordinary pains and culture There is also on the other side some Soyls of so malevolent a nature as can never be made to produce any thing that is good and that a man is forc'd totally to remove to bring better into its place if he intend to have his Trees to prosper However that which is contained in this Article ought notwithstanding to be equally observed in all sorts of Soyl if not in that which is so abominably bad as that it must be totally removed But a man ought never so much to presume upon the bounty of a Soyl as to neglect any part of his preparation for if it be able of it self to produce fruit that is very good it will produce incomparably better if seconded and assisted and that to its own fertility it shall receive all the advantages and improvements the Art and industry of the Gardiner can add unto it You are then to open a Trench eight foot wide and three foot deep and to dig it sloping that is wider at the top than the bottom on that side next the Wall to the end that this overture may not endanger the Walls foundation and in casting out the Earth you must separate the good from the bad that the Trench may only be filled up again with the best and that the worst may not again be thrown into it If you could leave this Trench open a whole year before you fill it up again undoubtedly the earth at the bottom by so long lying exposed to the open Air as also that which has been thrown out would receive a very great advantage for the reasons before given in the tenth and twelfth Articles of the Chapter concerning Standards But besides that a man can very hardly
drawn to cut off half of the roots in planting them and not to meddle with the tops till after Winter and after you have well supplied the roots with small and light mould and filled up the trenches you are to bank them up handsomly with earth in their rows or ranks so that the Plant be scarcely seen and after Winter is past when they begin to put out in April you must cleanse them with your fingers so as to leave no more than one Burgeon or upright shoot only 4. About three weeks before Midsummer when Fearn is yet tender it is very good to lay it green and fresh got about the ranks or rows at the same time you have laboured them to preserve the freshness of the earth and to hinder the heat of the Sun from incommodating those little Trees that have not yet strength to defend themselves but then in the labour you bestow upon them you must be careful not to touch the roots it will therefore be sufficient to stir the earth half a Spades graft near unto the rows provided you give them in the middle their due and usual depth When Winter shall be come you should bury this Fearn in the middle of the Trenches or Gutters to the end it there may rot and bare the Trees by taking away part of the earth by which they had been shouldered and moulded up yet so nevertheless that there still remain something above the ordinary level of the Plot to defend the Trees from the frosts of the Season 5. You must the Spring following take the first fair weather in March to labour this Nursery and in labouring it the Gardiner is with his Spade to chop and mince the Fearn that was buried in the beginning of Winter and that will then be half rotten with which mixt with earth he shall again bank up the Trees after the same manner he did with simple earth at the planting of them and is to continue so to do three or four years successively till the Trees shall be grown of sufficient strength to be grafted 6. As the Plant increases in growth you are still to cleanse it from all the little branches it shoots forth for half a foot above the earth to keep that part clean where the graft is to be placed but you are to cut nothing higher than that nor by any means the stock that being to no purpose at all for as much as it imports not after what manner the wood grows that is to be cut off when the Tree shall come to be grafted and it would mightily hinder its growth by reason that the sap evaporates by the wounds you make in cutting the little branches and the substance of the Trees as yet but small and weak instead of preserving and fortifying it self wasts and consumes away to nothing 7. If your Pepin-stocks are planted in a good Soyl and husbanded after this manner they will in the fourth year be ready to be grafted and then you must observe to put but one graft upon a stock how thick soever it may be which graft ought also to be proportioned to the thickness of the stock and be chosen bigger or less according to the strength of the other 8. You are to cut the stocks you graft upon in the form of a Hindsfoot for as much as after this sort the Tree is more apt to bark over again and does much sooner cover the wound 9. You are ever to observe to place the backside of the cut towards the South that the Sun may not dart plum down upon it and cause it to rift or chop for which reason also you are to take good heed that the clay you put upon it be so well tempered as not to crack off and leave the part where it is grafted open and naked A Maxim which is also to be observed in all sorts of Trees whatever that you cut 10. The graff in cleft being the best and the most usual for Standards we do not commonly think of any other for these sort of Nurseries not that inoculating is not very good especially for Pear-trees but it is more proper for Stone-fruits and Quinces than for Apples and Pears upon Pepin-stocks and Apple-trees come on very slowly when grafted after this manner 11. There is hardly any Season in the year wherein you may not graft for all Summer long and in Autumn you may inoculate and in Winter you may graft after the ordinary way nevertheless the best and most certain Season for this sort of grafting is in March and then in the decrease of the Moon but for gathering your grafts you may indifferently do it either in the wain or the increase 12. You are ever to cull your grafts from well-liking Trees and that are in their year of bearing that is to say that are well knotted with blossoms for the Tree you graft will evermore retain the estate and condition in which the Tree was from which he derives his graff at the time it was taken from it and will commonly bear exceedingly well if the Tree which imparts its whole nature to it was then well set with fruit as on the contrary it will remain barren and very rarely bear any fruit if the Mother-Tree was then in her year of repose 13. When the graff begins to put out you are to clean it with your fingers so that only one sprout remain to the end it may not fork and that the entire vigour of the Tree may go to maintain the branch you would preserve but after that you are no more either to cleanse or cut any thing from the Tree what branches or sprouts soever it may put out till the third year and then you are not only to take away the unprofitable ones but moreover form the Tree into the Figure wherein it ought to be which is chiefly to be understood for Trees that you raise in Standards 14. In your Nurseries your Apple-trees ought to be separated from your Pear-trees and to observe an exact decorum indeed your different fruits ought to be distinguisht by the several ranks or ranges of Trees In the following Chapter I intend to speak of the several sorts of fruits together with the manner of chusing and disposing of them 15. You may also graft after the same manner observing the same rules Apples of all sorts upon little Apples of Paradice for Dwarf-trees which prosper exceeding well and prove very great bearers but as this sort of stock shoots out but very little wood if those you shall plant in your Nurseries be of any thickness you are not to meddle with pruning the root and are to preserve half a foot or thereabout of the Bole to the end that when it shall sprout you may place the graft upon the old stock for if you should be obliged to expect till the new wood it shall put out be of sufficient thickness to bear a graft it would too much stretch your patience and defer your
perswade himself to so much patience it is to be feared that the Wall in the mean time would fall or be very much weakned the foundations of it being in a manner wholly laid open The earth being thus thrown out you should then lay in the bottom of the Trench a bed of half a foot or eight inches thick of good fat earth drawn a year or two before out of the bottom of some Marish or Fish-pond and well consumed in that time or Turf digged out of some green high-way where there is only short grass and no twitchgrass nor other sorts that devour the fatness of the earth This Turf ought not to be flead off above four inches thick and being got betimes in the year is excellent for Trees for the salt of this earth which has long lain idle still mounts upward and is attracted by the heat of the Sun and the little nourishment that short grass requires has nothing wasted its substance so that it remains entirely in the Turf but then you must break and mince it in the Trench till it be in a manner reduced to powder You are then to lay a bed of old dung very well rotten and well wasted of four inches or half a foot thick and another bed of the best of the earth that was turned out of your Trench which three different beds must be wrought with very great labour and such as shall shuffle and mix them with one another which is to be done with the spade until all these different things make up one body together after which you are also to lay three other distinct beds of the same substances which must also be laboured after the same manner till the Trench be heapt up half a foot above the level of the Alley forasmuch as the earth so tost and tumbled will shrink so much at least when the Winter or the rains have deprest and washt down the Husbandry If you have none of this fat Soyl of Pond-earth or Turf you must then put in so much the more dung you may also throw in the shovlings of some old ditch exposed to the South-Sun which are commonly very good or the sweepings of Courts and any thing whatever that Gardiners know to be good to mend the Soyl provided it be well wasted and is not too hot but you shall have a particular Chapter of what is to be observed in the choice of all sorts of Dung and Manure 7. It is of very great importance to give all these Manurings to the earth you prepare for Espalliers at the first to the end that the Trees being once planted you may not need to give it any more improvement at least of a very long time after and by this means also when the Trees shall come to bear the Dung being totally consumed and turned to earth will give no ill relish to the fruits they shall produce which oft-times falls out when they lay a great deal of Dung to Trees already settled in their place 8. If peradventure you shall not have sufficient store of dung plentifully to furnish the bottom and your upper bed too you must then dispose the greatest quantity into the bottom still reserving some but the lesser share for the bed above because you may at ease at any time supply that defect in the upper part of the earth and as oft as you shall think fit but the Trees being once planted you can no more dive under their roots to give them any improvement there 9. It is good to lay the Alleys of your Espalliers round and high ridged in the middle so that the midst of your Walk may lye higher than your Espallier to the end that the rain which shoots from the Alley may run into it and also that the helps you give it may remain and not be washt away 10. This way of preparing the earth is principally for Pear-trees for Peaches and Apricots are to be planted with less ado and do not indeed require so much dung but you must not fail even for them as well as the other to open the earth the same wideness and depth though you turn in the same earth simply as it came out without any mixture or help at all for as much as the roots of the Trees delight in this rifled and lightned earth and come on more in one year than they would do in any other in many Of what is to be observed in Planting Espalliers 1. ALl these things being thus ordered and disposed you are next to observe the distance at which your Trees are to be set wherein also you are to be guided by the nature of the Trees themselves and are to plant them at several distances according to their different kinds For Plumbs Apricots and Cherries are to be planted at six yards distance from one another by reason that their branches extend themselves very far and Pear-trees at the distance of fifteen foot or four yards at the least because they do not spread so wide 2. In the earth prepared after the manner prescribed in the foregoing Chapter you are to make little holes of about three or four foot square and a foot deep in such sort that it may easily receive all the roots of the Tree you design for that place which being done you must take old dung very rotten or fat earth that has lain very long and mix it very well with twice as much earth and put part over and part under the roots of the Tree which you are to set half a foot within the earth and a foot from the Wall sloping and leaning towards it so that the Bole appearing above ground may not be above three inches from the Wall for to tye and fasten the branches as they ought to be it must not be too far off and the root being more remote extracts also some nourishment from the earth that is betwixt the Wall and it You must also refresh the roots with the Pruning-knife after the manner set down in the thirteenth Article of the Chapter of Standards leaving all the hairy Fibers you can possibly save and be sure the roots be well covered with that mixt earth so that no vacuities remain as has been said before 3. You are also to have a care that the Dung touch not the roots because it would heat them too much and the Summer following peradventure make them die unless it be so old and rotten as that it has lost all its heat and that it be in a manner reduc'd to earth It is good to forbear cutting the Trees you set till after the great colds are past that is to say till the wain of January and February and set them at first entire without taking away any of their branches for the reasons already given in the tenth Article of the forenamed Chapter of Standards 4. When you prune Trees you are to cut them sloping in form of a Hind's foot and observe that the Cut be on that side
next to the Wall to the end it may not be exposed to the Sun which otherwise would make a cleft and a wound that would hurt it very much which place so cut should also be plaistered and covered over with the purest earth or that and hay tempered and mixt together or plaistered with a certain Gum the Embroiderers commonly use 5. You ought to leave but very few branches upon the Trees you plant after this manner for those that shall sprout out new will be much better and more easie to govern than those you take away 6. You may begin to plant immediately after the Month of September that is to say in the beginning or in the middle of October and the sooner you begin the better but if the earth should then prove too dry and not yet soakt enough with the rain you must then abundantly water the Trees that are set so soon 7. Some there are who in planting have a great regard to the Moon and believe the wain to be much more proper for this work than the increase but experience shews this Observation to be vain It is much better 't is true to prune in the decrease than the increase but you may as I have said elsewhere defer pruning a long time after they are planted 8. You ought to be very curious and careful in the choice you make of those kinds of Fruit you intend for Espalliers and never should plant any but those that can prosper no other way or that are so excellent you desire they should never fail or that you would have in greater perfection for they thrive to a greater largeness and come to a better colour in Espalliers than otherwise and infallibly bear every year Of these the Bonchrestien and the Bergamot are the chief the Rousselet and the little Muscat of the Summer-Pears the Amadoste the Portail and the Saint Lezin of the Winter-Pears are the next All which different kinds shall be more fully handled in the Catalogue of Pears in which every one shall find the kinds he most affects and has the greatest desire to have and how they are to be planted for their better propagation Only you may in the mean time observe that the Bonchrestien being without comparison by much the best of all Pears as well by reason of its beauty as because it keeps longer than any other you ought to plant in your Espalliers six times as many of them as of any other kind 9. As to what concerns Stone-fruits besides what shall be said of them in their Catalogue you are to observe the two same things in your choice of them Apricots prosper no other way but in Espalliers only but although their fruit be beautiful and very good you are not notwithstanding to plant many of them for they bear in too great abundance and continue but a very little while As for Plumbs they prosper very well in the open Air and well enough resist the frosts and winds and therefore it would be to no purpose to usurp the place of Espalliers for them if not for the white and red Pordrigon only which are the tenderest of all Plumbs and of which the Fruit is also preferred before all the rest Peaches of all other Fruit-trees do most require all the advantages of an Espallier that is to say a very hot Sun and a good shelter against the agitation of the winds for which reason there are very few places where they can come to their perfection unless they be clapt up close to a Wall wherefore as their fruit is of the best sort both for relish and beauty so it ought to make up the greater and more principal part of your best Espalliers if not an entire Espallier of themselves Those therefore who have a great many Walls would do well to make a whole Espallier of Peaches only on that side where the Sun is most violent which is the first of the two Positions observed in the foregoing Chapter and plant the Pear-trees in the second And being that Peach-trees require a greater distance for the extention of their branches one may with great ease and very good success make an Espallier of Peaches and * Muscat Grapes Muscats of three foot high along by the Wall which is the ordinary height of the stocks of Vines and plant Peaches of three foot of the Stem which will begin to extend their branches over the Muscats but then for this purpose you must chuse Peach-trees raised from the stone or that are grafted upon stocks of Almonds or Apricots which are raised from the stone and not upon Plumb-stocks by reason that the roots of the Plumb-trees too much importune their neighbours and run out so soon every way to seek for nourishment as even to thrust new sprouts or suckers out of the ground which would very much endamage the Muscats growing near them 10. Such as are well acquainted with the difference betwixt Pear-trees grafted upon Quinces and those which are grafted upon wild stocks always chuse the first for their Espalliers for ir is certain that the Pear-tree grafted upon a Quince-stock Pallisado's much better puts not out so much wood bears twenty times more fruit and nourishes them incomparably larger and fairer than that upon the wild stock and moreover the Trenches and improvements have been added to the earth in which they are planted continues much longer with the Quinces than the others by reason they spread not their roots so far and yet attract every whit as much nourishment as appears by their putting out many more hairy suckers and fibers It is true that the Beure the Orange-Pear the Bezidery and the Portail prosper as well upon the wild stock but they are much better upon the Quince though the Portail to say the truth is not so tart upon the wild stock and has ordinarily a better tast As to what concerns the choice of Apple and Pear-Quinces and their different natures you are to consult the Chapter of Pepin-fruits 11. Pear-Quinces not yet grafted are sometimes planted in Espalliers to graft them afterwards upon the place which is done the second year in the Month of August en * Which is by way of Inoculation oeil dormant which is the best way for Pear-Quinces after the manner set down in the Chapter of Nurseries for Pepin-fruits In case it be grafted after this manner the Quince that is planted is not to be above an inch or two inches higher than the earth for as much as you are to set the oeil dormant upon the first years shoot and when you plant Trees already grafted you must take good heed that the Graft be always four fingers above the earth lest the Tree should take root from the graft by which means it would loose the advantages it receives from the root of the Quince in having others of another quality and such as would make it bear a great deal more wood than fruit which Observation may also