The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 145 



more fully exposed to the sun than in the case of either pyramid or 

 bush, or any other method of growing apples away from walls — an 

 advantage for all parts of England, but especially so to cold, northern, 

 and elevated parts. 



The form is so definite and so simple, that anybody may attend 

 to it, and direct the energies of the little trees to a perfect end, 

 with much less trouble than is requisite to form a presentable pyra- 

 mid or bush. It does not, like other forms, shade anything — not 

 even so much so as some vegetables — for beneath the very line of 

 cordons you may have a slight crop. They are less trouble to support 

 than either pyramid or bush; always under the eye for thinning, 

 stopping, &c. ; easy of protection, if that be desired; and very 

 cheap in the first instance. Therefore this is the best of all known 

 modes of obtaining first-class garden apples. 



It has been objected that ground frosts would prevent the setting 

 of the fruit of these cordons, flowering as they do so near the 

 ground. But the apple flowers late, and usually has a better 

 chance of escaping than the pear ; and it is for the apple that the 

 system has been chiefly recommended. I have frequently seen fine 

 crops of fruit from trees that had not been protected. But as- 

 suming for a moment that ground frosts would annually destroy 

 the bloom, I may draw attention to the facility with which the 

 cordons may be protected from frost. The spray of any rough 

 evergreens will generally suffice ; but I need not gay that if it be 

 determined to adopt a more thorough mode of protection, this 

 method is the one to which it can be most readily applied. Where 

 the fruit wall borders are covered with cordons an extension of 

 the protection given to the wall may be made to do thoroughly. 

 Where the thing is tried on a smaller scale how easy to cover the 

 lines with the cheap barless ground vineries, and to remove these to 

 other uses when the fruit is beyond danger ! 



A few words are necessary as to the best method of planting and 

 managing the apple trained en cordon, and planted around the 

 quarters or on borders. In a garden in which particular neatness 

 is desirable it would be better to plant them within whatever 



