TRAINING. 



341 



it is most certain that the cultivation of the apple as a horizontal 

 cordon grafted on the true French paradise stock, is one of the most 

 pleasant and profitable things that can occupy the attention of the 

 amateur gardener. The following description of it is from the ' Parks, 

 Promenades, and Gardens of Paris,' and the figures will serve to put 

 it fairly before the reader. As it is purely a Continental plan, and has 

 not up to the present time been much used in our gardens, cultivators 

 should not be deterred from attempting it because they may not find 

 examples of it in their immediate neighbourhood. 



Fig. 321. 



Peach-tree at Montreuil perpendicularly trained. 



" The first thing we have to settle is, What is a cordon ? There has 

 been some little discussion on this point discussion that was utterly 

 needless, and even mischievous, as tending to prevent the public 

 knowing exactly what the term is used for. It simply means a tree 

 confined to a single stem ; that stem being furnished with spurs, or 

 sometimes with little fruiting branches nailed in, as in the case of the 

 peach when trained to one stem. Some contended that it meant any 



Fig. 322. 



The apple trained as a simple horizontal cordon, grafted on the French 

 paradise stock, and in full bearing. 



form of branch closely spurred in ; but this is quite erroneous. The 

 term is never applied to any form of tree but the small and simple- 

 stemmed ones. The French have no more need of the word to express 

 a tree trained on the spur system than we have, and they have trained 

 trees on that system for ages without ever calling them by this name. 

 " A simple galvanized wire is attached to a strong oak post or bit 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 



