The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 137 



Before this name was applied to the forms herein illustrated, or 

 rather before they came into use, it was chiefly applied to a mode of 

 training vines horizontally — each plant resembling the double cordon, 

 except that the stem was longer for those vines that covered the upper 

 portion of wall ; the vines en cordon being trained one over another. 

 However, to settle the use of the term, I wrote to Professor Du 

 Breuil, the leading professor of fruit culture in France. His reply 

 was thus alluded to in the Gardener's Chronicle: — "What a vast 

 proportion of controversy and dispute might be saved, would people 

 only agree as to the meaning to be attached to words. Just now, 

 as it appears to us, a great deal of unnecessary discussion is raised as 

 to the word 'cordon.' A wrangle about words is about as satis- 

 factory as an argument to prove a negative. It may serve, perhaps, 

 to stop this futile wordy debate to give the opinion of M. Du Breuil 

 himself on the matter. This renowned horticulturist, in a recently 

 written letter, which has been submitted for our inspection, says 

 that he applied the word ' cordon ' to trees consisting of a single 

 branch, bearing fruit-spurs only, and thus resembling a rope or cord. 

 When there are two such branches, M. Du Breuil applies tlie ex- 

 pression ' double cordon.' In order to be quite accurate, we subjoin 

 M. Du Breuil's letter verbatim et literatim : — 



"Le mot ' cordon dirive en frangais de cord: jai employe cette 

 expression pour designer les formes d'arlres dont la charpente se com- 

 pose seulement dune seule Iranche qui ne parte que des rameaux a 

 fruit. La charpente de ces arhres rassemhle alors a une corde ou 

 cordon. Lorsque la charpente de I'arlre se compose de deux branches, 

 je donne a cette forme le nom de ' cordon double.' " 



I should not thus define at length the meaning of the word were 

 it not that any other acceptation of it would not only be contrary 

 to the generally received laws of nomenclature, but mischievous as 

 preventing the proper understanding of the system, or any benefit 

 being derived from it. Professor Du Breuil states distinctly in his 

 book that, struck with the long period it took to cover a wall by 

 means of the larger forms of trees, he invented those quick-rising 

 simple-stemmed kinds to cover the walls rapidly and give an early 



