302 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XVIII. 



As regards the Pear as a horizontal cordon, Mr. Watson of Geneva 

 wrote as follows to the Gardener s Chronicle : — " I question if 

 there exists elsewhere a more extensive collection of Pears trained 

 on the horizontal-cordon system than may now he seen in M. 

 Vaucher's garden near Geneva. There are hundreds of them, 

 consisting of every good sort that M. Vaucher could buy. Beurre 

 Noirchain, four feet six inches long, had twenty-three fruit upon 

 it; Beurre GifFard, six feet six inches long, twenty-two fruit; 

 those of the last-named kind hanging about four inches from the 

 ground." 



The Peach as a Cordon. — With the Peach as an oblique cordon, 

 a good result is attained, the wall being covered very rapidly ; 

 and the neat laying-in of a great number of shoots on each side of 

 the simple stem does away with the crowded appearance which a 

 plantation of cordon Pears assumes when old and the stems 

 thickened. But instead of the wood being closely pinched in, as 

 people might suppose in England from reading of the method of 

 one M. Grin, it is nailed in at each side of the branch, more so 

 indeed than if that branch were part and parcel of one of the 

 older and larger forms of tree. I once saw an excellent result 

 afforded by this system against the high back wall of a vinery in 

 the establishment of M. Eose-Charmeux, at Thomery. By its 

 means he perfectly covered his wall in a short time, and gathered 

 a great variety of fruit from a small sj^ace. Out of doors it not 

 unfrequently affords equally good results. It is well calculated 

 for high walls, and may be adopted for low ones by training the 

 trees at a more acute angle with the earth. 



Considering the time usually required to furnish walls in the 

 ordinary way, there can be little doubt that this mode of training 

 the Peach is a real improvement, where a considerable number of 

 varieties are required from a small space. Apart from that, 

 however, the facility and simplicity with which walls may be 

 covered by this method, and the readiness with which a diseased 

 or otherwise objectionable tree may be replaced, will doubtless 

 prove a sufficient recommendation for cultivators who are not 

 restricted as to space. It should, however, be borne in mind that 

 on very good soils where the Peach grows very vigorously, it will 

 not suit so well as on poor ones where it grows slowly, and that 

 medium-sized forms may be adopted for the Peach as well as for 



