IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN GROWING OR TRAINING OF PLANTS and FRUIT TREES
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ellis Treacher Bowden at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th May 1874.
I, ELLIS TREACHER BOWDEN, of Rochford Rectory, Tenbury, in the
County of Worcester, Clerk in Holy Orders, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED
IN GROWING OR TRAINING OF PLANTS and FRUIT TREES,” to be as follows :—
My Invention consists principally in the use of suspended trainers
constructed and applied in the manner herein-after described for growing
or training hop plants and fruit trees, and further in the adaptation to
the said training apparatus of shields or heat reflectors; the said shields
or heat reflectors may however be used apart from the training
apparatus.
I will describe my Invention as applied to apparatus for the growing
or training of hop plants. I make the suspended trainers by preference
of wood, such as shoots of trees of about 12 feet long, and of any desired
thickness. The said trainers may either be used singly, or two or more
may be united together. It is preferred when the trainer is made of two

page_text: or more shoots or lengths of wood to give it the figure of the letter V.
Each trainer has hooks near its top and bottom, the said hooks being
made of galvanized iron wire or other metal. I suspend the trainers
thus made in the following manner :-I strain horizontally two strong
parallel wires from posts placed about 12 yards apart. These posts have
cross pieces fixed near their tops, to the ends of which cross pieces the
strained wires are fastened, the said wires being about 12 feet from the
ground. A third wire is also strained from the posts at about a foot
from the ground. The trainers are suspended to the strained wires
described by hooking them thereto, the top hooks on the trainers being
⚫ engaged with the top wires, and the bottom hooks with the bottom wire.
I do not however limit myself to hooks as other fastenings may be used.
I prefer that the bottom hooks on the trainers shall be about six inches
from the bottom, so that the trainers when suspended may descend
about six inches below the bottom wire and be near the growing plants.
In place of the strained wires described strained wires or chains
having eyes or rings in them at equal or unequal distances apart may be
used, the eyes or rings in the upper wires being situated over or nearly
over the eyes or rings in the lower wire or wires. In this arrangement
a metal or other pin is passed transversely through the larger end of the
trainer at about six inches from its bottom. The said larger end of the
trainer is passed through the ring or eye in the lower wire or chain until
it is caught by the pin crossing the said ring or eye, and the other end
of the trainer is then passed through the ring in one of the upper wires
or chains. In this way the trainer is suspended to the wires. The
trainers may be suspended by this means either vertically or in an
inclined direction. When suspended in an inclined direction it is pre-
ferred that the straining posts carrying the wires or chains shall be
only about 7 feet from the ground.
In constructing shields or heat reflectors for training or growing hop
plants or fruit trees in combination with suspended trainers I use
straining posts as before described but without cross pieces, and I strain
at the face or front side of the posts two wires or chains for suspending
the trainers; I also strain at the back of the posts and near the tops there-
of a series of wires at about 6 or 8 inches apart. There is thus strained
to the posts two series of wires, one series being separated from the other
series by a distance equal to the diameter of the posts. Between or
among the back series of wires sheets of zinc or other metal are

page_text: laced, the said sheets acting as shields or reflectors of heat to the plants.
growing on the trainers.
The improved shields or heat reflectors described may be used
separately instead of in conjunction with the improved apparatus for
growing or training of plants and fruit trees.
The advantages among others derived from the use of my Invention
are saving of labor and economy in first cost. The trainers when growing
hop plants may be taken down and replaced with the growing plants
upon them for fumigating; and at picking time may be taken down and
replaced to allow the sap to remain in the plant, and by using shields or
heat reflectors the hops will be both matured earlier and of finer quality
than hops grown in the ordinary way.
By the use of my Invention for growing or training fruit trees wall
fruit may be grown without walls, and the wall or other fruit obtained
is of finer size and of better quality, and is earlier matured than when
grown in the ordinary way. My Invention also permits the fruit trees
to be readily fumigated and netting applied to protect the fruit.