CHAPTER VIII. 



The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 



GIVE this precedence not on account of its importance, 

 but because it has been so much spoken of both in the 

 leading journal and in all the gardening papers j Mr. Punch 

 even informing the world that the writer of the articles advocating 

 cordon training in tlie Times was to be made a " Grand Cordon of the 

 Legion of Honour!" At first I merely mentioned the system inciden- 

 tally, but many letters and articles were written about it, and eventu- 

 ally it appeared to assume an importance which it scarcely deserves. 

 To state what it really is in the hands of the best French cultivators, 

 and what it is worth, is my object in this chapter. The first thing 

 we have to settle is. What is a cordon ? There has been some little 

 discussion upon this point — discussion that was utterly needless, and 

 even mischievous, as tending to prevent the public knowing exactly 

 what the term is used for. In Frande (and in this country since the 

 subject has been so much talked of) it simply means a tree confined 

 to one single stem : that stem being furnished with spurs, or some- 

 times with little fruiting branches nailed in, as in the case of the 

 peach when trained as a cordon. Some contended that it meant any 

 form of branch closely spurred in ; but this is quite erroneous. The 

 term is never applied to any form of trees but the very 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 that system for ages without ever so calling them. 



