30 CORDON TRAINING. 



But for an amateur to take up cordon training 

 and to endeavour to practise it, irrespective of 

 the exigencies of our rainy skies, and to expect 

 results attainable in other dry and sunny locali- 

 ties, is simply absurd. 



I have myself carefully studied the system, 

 and followed it out on a fair scale for some years, 

 both in the open air and in the orchard-house. 

 While, therefore, convinced of its value, I trust 

 it will not be considered presumptuous in me to 

 say, that I believe that an important portion of 

 this peculiar system would prove a total failure 

 unless it were carried out exactly 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 

 labour so great as to prevent even ladies from 

 undertaking it. I offer my suggestions to amateurs 

 with a certain confidence, since I have tried and 

 rejected most of the systems which are, at this 

 day, considered 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 proportionate 

 sun-heat renders it impossible to have well-ripened 

 wood 9 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 



