176 Notes and Gleanings. 



been a regular thickening of fruit spars, and but little tendency to the production 

 of side l)ranches. We have seen them trained along narrow borders in town 

 gardens, affording much interest to their possessors, and we have also seen them 

 trained to low walls where fruit was never produced before, and also forming the 

 boundary lines of kitchen gardens in great establishments. 



" Amateurs who seek light amusement in their gardens, will find these little 

 trees a boon to them ; they require only moderate patience to keep the growth 

 in order ; and as to skill, that is scarcely needed, for they very nearly take care of 

 themselves. As for the rest, it will be best, doubtless, to let Mr. Robinson 

 speak for himself; and we' therefore copy the following from his Parks, Gar- 

 dens, and Promenades ofPaiis : — 



" ' A simple galvanized wire is attached to a strong oak post, or rod of iron, so 

 firmly fixed that the strain of the wire may not disturb it. The wire is supported 

 at a distance of one foot from the ground, and tightened by one of the handy 

 little implements described elsewhere in this volume. The raidisseurwill tighten 

 several hundred feet of the wire, which need not be thicker than strong twine, 

 and of the same sort as that recommended for walls and espaliers. The galva- 

 nized wire known as No. 14 is the most suitable for general use. At intervals a 

 support is placed under the wire in the form of a piece of thick wire with an eye 

 in it, and on the wire the apple, on the French Paradise, is trained, thus form- 

 ing the simplest, best, and commonest kind of cordon, and the one so extensively 

 employed for making edgings around the squares in kitchen and fruit gardens. 



" ' Cordons are trained against walls, espaliers, and in many ways ; but the most 

 popular form of all, and the best and most useful, is the little line of apple trees 

 acting as an edging to the quarters in the kitchen and fruit garden. By select- 

 ing good kinds, and training them in this way, abundance of the finest fruit may 

 be grown, without having any of the large trees, or those of any other form, in the 

 garden, to shade or occupy its surface. The bilateral cordon is useful for the 

 same purposes as the simple one, and especially adapted to the bottoms of walls, 

 bare spaces between the fruit trees, the fronts of pits, or any low naked wall with 

 a warm exposure. As in many cases the lower parts of walls in gardens are 

 quite naked, this form of cordon offers an opportunity for covering them with 

 what will yield a certain and valuable return. It is by this method that the 

 finest colored, largest, and best Fi-ench apples, sold in Covent Garden and in 

 the Paris fruit shops at such high prices, are grown. I have seen them, this 

 year, in Covent Garden and in Regent Street, marked two and three shillings 

 each ; and M. Lepere, fils, of Montreuil, told me, when with him last summer, 

 that they have there obtained four francs each for the best fruit of the Calville 

 to send to St. Petersburg, where they arc sold, in winter, for as much as eight 

 francs each ! 



" ' There is no part of the country in which the low cordon will not be found a 

 most useful addition to the garden ; that is, wherever first-rate and handsome 

 dessert fruit is a want. So great is the demand in the markets for fruit of the 

 highest quality, that sometimes the little trees more than pay for themselves the 

 first year after being planted. In any northern exposed and cold places, where 

 choice apples do not ripen well, it would, be desirable to. give the trees as warm 



