Jaaaory IC, 18€8. J 



JOUXlNMi OF HOBTICULTURE AND COXTAGE GABDENEB. 



43 



I went on to fniit-growing, and by diligently carrying out the 



diroctions contained in M. Ba Breuil'a " Treatise on Arbori- 

 culture" (French edition), I have now an excellent collection 

 of Pears. I have received 18s. a-dor.en from a fruiterer in 

 Eichmond for Easter Leurri-, and never less than Vis. a-dozen 

 for those I wish to part with. 



Quality, tested by actual sale, should be the object of .iU 

 amateurs, and " the quality of mercy must not be strained " 

 by such an exaction as twenty-three dozen from a young tree 

 onlv 1 1 feet high. 



When, next year, Jlr. Ellis's fruit room is destitute of 

 Beurrc Clairgeau Pears— as destitute it will be— I will endeavour 

 to supply his " ripe " wants from young and vigorous plants 

 of about the same size, which are permitted, and rarely fail to 

 produce, year by year, five or Bix dozen first-class fruit. — • 

 Henky W'. Pownall, ,S'(. Margant'a, Twickenham. 



WHAT IS A CORDON.' 



As an article in your last impression attempts to answer 

 this question, and gives a definition of the term entirely at 

 variance with the commonly accepted one in France, you will 

 perhaps allow mo to state what a cordon really means in the 

 language of French fruit-growers generally. We know it is one 

 of those terms that have many meanings, and hence occurs the 

 twisting it has received of late. Clearly what we want is to 

 know the generally accepted meaning of the term. To say, as 

 you do, that it means any form pruned on the spur system, is 

 "quite erroneous, and so is Mr. Bn'haut's definition. The 

 Peach, when trained en cordon in France, has its branches 

 laid-in the same as those of trees of the larger forms. This is 

 true of Peaches whether grown in or out of doors, the only 

 exception being the system of Grin, in which an attempt is 

 made to do without the uailiug-iu. This is adopted in but 

 very few places, and is not liked by the French fruit-growers. 

 For us it will prove completely useless. 



You quote Professor Du Breuil. I have now the last edition 

 of his vrork before me. You say he invented the term to 

 " express certain modes of training which we have called the 

 spur system,'' A-c. The truth is, he invented the form for a 

 purpose which he very clearly expresses. Struck with the long 

 time it takes to cover walls with the larger forms, even when 

 under the best management, and other difficulties and com- 

 plications which he enumerates, it occurred to him that the 

 adoption of a simpler form would be desirable. At page 339 

 of the very latest edition of his book {13(j8j, he says " Frapjxi 

 de ces inconvenient^ nous avonx cherche a y remedier en imagi- 

 nant dc nouielles formes qui, heaiicoup plus aisees a ctablir que 

 toutes les autres, promisscnt de couvrir regulierment toute la sur- 

 face du mnr dans un laps de temps Veaiicoup plus court, etjissent 

 donner aux arbres leur produit marimnvi heaucoup pilus t'lt, sans 

 abrener leur durce." These new forms he called cordons. The 

 spurring-in of these in the case of the Pear was exactly the 

 same as that applied to tho branches of the larger forms for 

 years before. Therefore it is quite a contortion of the author's 

 meaning, and tends, moreover, to confuse the mind of the 

 reader, to say that the term was introduced simply to '■ express 

 what we call the spur system." I think the French language 

 contained a name for that a long time before the Professor's 

 appearance, and he certainly did not invent the term to sup- 

 plant what they were previously known by. At page 480 of 

 the work above quoted is a figure of the Peach en cordon, with 

 the wood laid- in in the ordinary way. From the greater degree 

 of vigour iuduced by the tree being confined to a single stem, 

 the wood to be laid-in is often more profuse than from a branch 

 of a large tree. At page 483 he even gives a figure of a very 

 neat mode of covering a wall for cordons, and in which there 

 is special and careful provision made for the tying-in of the 

 young side branches of the Peach. 



I, " one of the disputants," did not use the term cordon 

 " In a very limited sense, conveying the idea that it referred 

 only to the manner in which Apples and Pears are trained to 

 form edgings to garden walks." I said especially that there were 

 many forms of cordons, but that that particular one was the 

 best for general use. With your general estimate of the cordon 

 system , I quite agree, but think you will yet find the low 

 edging cordon excellent when well managed, and am certain 

 that it has distinct merits for this country. Against walls, it 

 is true, the cordons cover the space quickly from being usually 

 confined to simple stems ; but then their energies are confined 

 too much, and, besides, the expense of planting trees so closely 



together is objectionable. A better way to attain a consider- 

 able variety from a small space and cover the wall quickly, is 

 to adopt forms with four or five ascending stems. This has 

 been recently done on a large scale at Versailles, and with an 

 excellent result. 



By the way, X have looked through Du Breuil and other good 

 French authors, and in none of them do I find the word cordon 

 applied to any large form of tree ; but I have just seen a very 

 clear definition of what it is in M. C. Baltet's book on the Pear 

 — ■" Le cordon est la forme rMuite a sa plus simple e.Tjiression ; 

 une seule tige garnie de brindilles fruitieres. L'avantage du 

 cordon est de simplifier la charpente ct de rfunir une collection 

 dr rarletes dans un espace restreint." — (Culture du Poirier, 

 p. 20.) Therefore the term cordon does apply to a particular 

 and well-defined class of forms, and is not a particular mode of 

 pruning, as is abundantly shown by the work of the inventor 

 of the system, who is, I may add, the leading professor of 

 fruit-growing in France. The French certainly do not apply 

 the term to indicate a tree pruned on the spur system ; and it 

 is clear enough that the English have never done so. That 

 they will adopt the term cordon in lieu of the old one is most 

 unlikely in either case ; but unless they depart widely from 

 what is generally accepted in such matters, they must call the 

 forms embracf d under that name by the expressive term given 

 them by their originator— a term widely accepted on the Con- 

 tinent. — One of the Disputants. 



[We have only to repeat that M. Du Breuil uses the word 

 "cordon" generically, and not specifically. In the edition of his 

 book so long ago as 1846, he there defines it as " the primary 

 ramifications of the stem, and which are generally simple ;" 

 and in his edition of 1350 he says, " The forms of this group 

 [cordons], are ail composed of horizontal, obhque, or even 

 vertical cordons issuing directly from the stock of the tree, or 

 supported from a stem more or less elevated." The various 

 kinds he describes are the simple horizontal, the simple ver- 

 tical, the simple oblique, the horizontal unilateral, and the 

 palmetto cordon. Of the last a figure is given which represents 

 a tree with no less than tirimttj-tiro horizontal branches or 

 cordons upon it. ' What is that if it is not " a large form of 

 tree?" The quotation our correspondent has given above 

 from M. Du Breuil is most unfairly stated, inasmuch as he 

 quotes just enough to suit his own purpose, and then he says, 

 " These new forms he calls cordons." Now M. Du Breuil does 

 no such thing, as our correspondent well knows. What he 

 does say is, " We have given to this new disposition, contrived 

 by us for the Pear tree in 135'2, the name of cordon oblique 

 s'iv:ple." So much for M. Du Breuil, the eminent professor. 



Then there is that skilful old pruner, M. LepiTe, who, after 

 all, we believe to be the originator of the term, and not M. Du 

 Breuil. If our correspondent will turn to his book he will find 

 eight pages devoted to "Pahnette Peach trees with horizontal 

 cordons," and the text illustrated on plate v. M. Lepere's 

 definition of cordons is, " these are the secondary branches of 

 the Peach tree formed en palmctte." Surely this cannot be 

 applied to M. Baltet's cordon, which is a solitary stem, furnished 

 with fruit-bearing hrindilks (elongated spurs), and which has 

 no branches at all. 



M. Carriere, also, an author of note and of authority in 

 French gardening matters says, " Particularly in arboriculture, 

 every part of a plant trained a little horiz.ontally is called a 

 cordon, and on which branches are placed which are kept short 

 by pruning, and to which the name of branches coursonnes ig 

 given. In a handsome cordon the coursons* are well directed, 

 they are well displayed— that is to say, that they have no rami- 

 fications, and that they do not form what may be called bushy 

 masses. Cordon is appUed also to Pear trees, Apple trees, or 

 any other tree when it is subjected to this form." 



bur correspondent has correctly quoted M. Charles Baltet, a 

 respectable French nurseryman, who, like himself, uses the 

 word in its most restricted sensr ; his cordon being the cordon 

 simple of M. Du Breuil. Whatever loose appUcation M. C. 

 Baltet or '■ the French fruit-growers generally" may make of 

 the term, is not to the piu-pose ; our acceptation of it is not 

 I.L Baltet's, but that of those eminent arboriculturists who for 

 thirty years or more have devoted their attention to the inven- 



• Catnons are in Peaches the analogues of the spurs in Pears or 

 Apples, produced by close-pruniog and pinchins in the same way as spars 

 are. We submit this note with great diffidence to car correspondent after 

 his authoritative assertion that our and Mr. Brehaufs deftnitions aro 

 " (inite erroneous ;" but wo cannot help informing him, for he does not 

 aeem to know, that the modem system of close-pruning the Peach in 

 branches coursonnes, inciu'ling the little laying-ia that is required, is 

 totally different from tho old system of "laying-ia" to which we referred. 



