97 



VERTICAL CORDON APPLE TREES 



In pages 47 and 48 will be found the method of train- 

 ing vertical cordon pear trees. This may be applied to 

 apples on the English Paradise stock with great success, 

 and very charming fruitful trees they make. They 

 should not be allowed to grow above eight feet in 

 height, to which they will reach in the course of four or 

 five years. I annex a figure of one of these trees, three 

 years old, and full of fruit (fig. 20). 



I have, at this period (1885), a plantation of vertical 

 cordon apple trees which have now been planted several 

 years ; the trees are six feet apart 

 row from row, and three feet in 

 the rows ; when in full fruit they 

 are very interesting. I do not fol- 

 low the close summer pinching 

 recommended by Dubreuil and 

 others; in fact, I abstain entirely 

 from summer pruning, and I be- 

 lieve with good results, as the fruit 

 is always large and finely coloured ; 

 in October every tree is closely 

 pruned — that is, all the summer 

 shoots are cut back to three eyes. 

 On this plot, about sixty square 

 poles, I have 672 apple trees of 

 430 sorts planted for specimens. As the apple crop is 



