98 CORDON TRAINING. 



CHAP. XVI. 



OBJECTIONS TO CORDON TRAINING ANSWERED. 



THE first objection to Cordon training seems to 

 be its apparently artificial form, by which the 

 tree, being closely spurred in during the summer, 

 is more rapidly exhausted and its duration di- 

 minished. You hear people after passing by the 

 Cordon trees with " faint praise grudgingly 

 given," even to visible results, come at last to 

 some other specimen, trained on obsolete systems, 

 and exclaim, " Ah ! this looks like a tree." A 

 sigh of relief at their torture being now over, 

 proves the sincerity of their present words. How 

 often has it been my fate to hear such observa- 

 tions, not from prejudiced and ignorant men, but 

 from otherwise well-informed people. I really 

 think that in this, as in many other cases by the 

 bye, that the fairer half of the creation has 

 shown a higher discernment. It is truly as- 

 tonishing how soon intelligent ladies will surpass 

 us in horticultural pursuits ; and, no doubt, the 

 day is at hand when the soi-disant lords of the 



