The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 141 



their value, even if tested by the best of all tests, the market one, 

 will soon more than compensate the cultivator for the expense in- 

 curred by the introduction of this mode of culture. Our own first- 

 class and hardy kinds may be grown as the edgings frequently 

 recommended; the fine but in some cases tender French and 

 American kinds, will be better against low walls, &c., while the 

 fruit borders, with which we have hitherto been in doubt what 

 to do (some contending that they ought not to be cropped at 

 all), will form an excellent position for growing to the greatest 

 perfection our own first-class kinds of apple, any pears that will 



FIG. 27. Border of Cordons at Versailles. 



conform agreeably to the system, and any other fruits that may in 

 time to come be found to do well en cordon. Should we find that 

 other kinds of fruit may be grown with advantage in this way, so 

 much the better ; but even if we should not, covering the fruit borders 

 of our gardens with the kind that we already know to do well 

 trained thus, will prove one of the neatest and most useful im- 

 provements that our fruit gardens have witnessed for many years. 



By planting our borders thus we do away with the necessity for 

 disturbing the border after planting, the roots of the wall trees are 

 perfectly safe, a slight extension of the protection usually devoted 



