

32 CORDON TRAINING. 



No long straggling shoots are ever seen. The 

 supply of new wood of the proper bearing age, 

 and the regular distribution of the leaves, en- 

 sures a succession of crops. The fruit is all 

 produced close to the main stems. All parts of 

 the tree have a fair chance. The produce is 

 \ doubled, since half of the intervals between the 

 / branches is only required. Twelve inches are 

 sufficient for the parts where 18 or 24 inches 

 were formerly required. The trees are as 

 readily detached from the walls to clean them, 

 as vines are from the wires, and from their 

 simple forms no injury can happen to any 

 portion. The trees are only lightly secured to 

 the rods (which are safer, after all, than gal- 

 vanised wires), and it is easy to clear off cobwebs 

 and insects from the back of the trees, an ad- 

 vantage of incalculable value, as the gardener 

 well knows. All these, and others, are the re- 

 7 suits of cordon training. 



But one of the chief recommendations of the 

 ^ system is the rapidity with which a high wall is 

 / clothed with productive spurs. In four years a 

 wall, twelve to fifteen feet high, can be covered 

 with fruit-bearing wood, all disposed in regular, 

 beautiful, and harmonious succession. 

 ^ This will be obvious by a reference to the 

 Frontispiece, where the different years are indi- 

 cated by their progress ; and as a tree, planted at 

 the angles shown, must grow fast, and yet be 



