16 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING-. 



cordon, break, all save the leading shoot should 

 be pinched back to three , leaves or so, the leader 

 only being allowed to grow throughout the season. 

 The attempt to suppress it too severely only 

 aids in forcing the lower buds of the cordon to 

 break during the current year, a misfortune that 

 no amount of future pruning or skill can quite 

 counteract. 



"With the base of the cordon well furnished with 

 fruit-buds at the earliest possible moment, and these 



bably the horizontal, at distances from the ground 

 varying from nine to eighteen inches, is as generaUy 

 useful as any other ; but for clothing waUs of limited 

 height, say fi-om three to five feet, oblique cordons are 

 to be preferred to vertical ones, inasmuch as they 

 give the cordon a longer run before reaching the 

 top. (See also Fig. 30.) 



Horizontal cordons are also sometimes planted 

 from a foot to two feet apart, and trained along, 

 one on the top of the other, at the same distances 



Fig. 22.— Spiral Coedos Thee, 



resulting in a fine crop of fruit, there is little fear of 

 any excessive growth in the future, if the plan of 

 top growth and summer pinching of the side shoots 

 already pointed out is carefully carried into effect. 



Modes of Training Cordons.— The simplicity 

 of the primitive form lends itself to several modes of 

 training, as, for example, the vertical, the horizon- 

 tal, the oblique, the single and double (see Figs. 20 

 and 21), the curvilinear, with the curves vertical 

 with the earth like a barrow-wheel, or horizontal 

 or corkscrew fashion, diamonded, vandyked, &c. 

 Perhaps the oblique, diamond, and spiral, of which 

 see illustrations of the latter (Figs. 22 and 23), ai-e as 

 good or better than any other, but the primitive form 

 equally yields to every other method, such as the 

 horizontal, vertical and winding, or vandyked. Pro- 



until the wall is furnished. In this method of 

 training and utilising cordons, though the last 

 planted can hardly be the first, it assuredly has the 

 furthest to run. 



In one of the most novel and satisfactory results 

 the writer ever had with Apple cordons, the ti'ees were 

 planted on the top of a raised bank, eighteen inches 

 apart. The bank was ten feet long on the southern 

 side, with a sharp pitch to the south. All excepting 

 about two feet of its crown was surface-concreted, 

 and finished of a dark colour by the use of a con- 

 siderable amount of soot in the concrete. Wires 

 were run up and down the bank, eighteen inches 

 asunder and fifteen inches from the ground. The 

 maiden trees were ' partly cut back, for this first 

 experiment was made many years ago. They grew 

 so strong that they were stopped early in June, and 



