CORDON TRAINING. 



CHAP. II. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF FRUIT CULTURE. 



THE details, brief as they are, of this work, 

 would not readily be appreciated if a few general 

 principles, obvious and reasonable, were not first 

 stated. General maxims are often neglected in 

 practice, so that it becomes necessary to repeat 

 them in a short work such as this, because they 

 render the details more intelligible. 



Many unskilled persons assert that the scientific 

 culture of fruit trees has neither the effect of in- 

 creasing their productive powers, nor of prolong- 

 ing their vitality. Both these statements are 

 untrue. Experience has fully proved that certain 

 principles are necessary to be followed ; under 

 these the results have been good : it is the devia- 

 tion from them that is the cause of failure. 



It seems pretty certain that the 'office of the 

 ascending sap is to nourish and increase the volume 

 of the whole tree, while, by its passage through, 

 and change while in the leaves, and by its return 

 to the roots, it promotes the production of fruit. 



