20 CORDON TRAINING. 



actly as described in these pages. But as it is so simple that 

 any one can understand its rules, there can be no reason why 

 mistakes should occur, nor is the manual labor so great as to 

 prevent even ladies from undertaking it. I offer my sugges- 

 tions to amateurs with a certain confidence, since I have tried 

 and rejected most of the systems which are, at this day^ con- 

 sidered excellent in France. One form was quite unsuitable 

 to the extreme dampness of our climate, which induces a too 

 luxuriant growth in the autumn ; while the want of propor- 

 tionate sun-heat renders it impossible to have well-ripened 

 wood, — and without this, what tree will ever bear ? 



Another form, more adapted to meet these difficulties, was 

 far too complicated in its system of dis-budding, — which, by 

 the bye, is a plan requiring mucli caution in its adoption, and 

 is not very necessary at any time. It is true this last system 

 produced a fair crop of fruit, but it required too much atten- 

 tion to make it generally valuable. Proceeding, therefore, 

 on a new mode, which arose out of the cordon system itself, 

 I gradually adopted it, and after two years' trial of this new 

 combination, I do not hesitate to recommend it as the best 

 which exists at the present day. A large and important por- 

 tion of this system — the management of the spurs and the 

 growths on them — is very similar to that recommended by 

 Mr. Rivers, in the chapter on "Summer Pinching." Some 

 of the terms used in horticulture are so droll as to excite 

 wonder at their use, but it would cause confusion to endeavor 

 to introduce any new ones. But certainly " pinching spurs 

 in the summer" seems no particular recommendation in gar- 

 dening. 



As was said before, cordon training has the immense 

 advantage of being simple. There is no elaborate tying-in 

 of summer shoots, as old as Shakspeare : " Tie up those 

 dangling apricocks ;" indeed few ties are required even in 

 the winter. The forerights are preserved, which are of much 

 value in increasing the amount of fruit. The spurs are com- 

 pactly and regularly distributed, and are thus more easily 

 sheltered from the weather, and more readily examined and 



