280 THE PAEKS AND GARDENS OE TABIS. [Chap. XVIII. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 



THE CORDON S.YSTEM OF FRUIT-GROWING. 



A OOEDON means a tree confined to a single stem, that stem being 

 furnished with spurs, or sometimes with little fruiting branches 

 nailed in, as in the case of the Peach when trained to one stem. 

 Some have supposed that it means any form of branch closely 

 spurred in ; but this is not the case. The term is wrongly applied 

 to any form of tree but the small and simple-stemmed ones. The 

 French have no more need of the word to express a tree trained 

 on the spur system than we have, and they have trained trees on 

 the spur system for ages without ever calling them by this name. 



The Apple trained as a Simple Horizontal Cordon^ grafted on the French Paradise Stock. 



Professor Du Breuil, in reply to a letter requesting him to define 

 the exact use and meaning of the term, replied as follows : " The 

 word cordon is derived in French from corde. I employed this 

 expression to designate the forms of fruit-trees composed of one 

 branch, which only bears fruit-buds and branchlets." 



He states that, struck with the long period it took to cover 

 a wall by means of the larger forms of trees, he adopted those 

 quick-rising simple-stemmed kinds to cover the walls rapidly and 

 give a quick return. Hence it is clear that if we call a fan- 

 trained or a horizontal tree a " cordon," we not only misapply the 



