366 



THE PEACH AS A CORDON. 



Fig. 165. 



Of the various modifications of the cordon system the 

 spiral cordon deserves note. The merit 

 claimed for it is that a greater length of 

 stem is secured, and consequently that the 

 tree is not so likely to suffer from heing 

 confined to a single stem. Trained as 

 shown by Fig. 165, it is pretty, but against 

 walls it has not even that merit. The 

 isolated spiral cordon may be trained on a 

 galvanized iron support like that shown in 

 the illustration, or round a circle of stakes 

 inserted in the ground. The first way is 

 certainly the neatest and the best. It is 

 quite easy to train trees round this spiral 

 support, which seems best fitted for adop- 

 tion where a thorough system of protec- 

 tion is carried out, in consequence of the 

 number of trees that may be packed into 

 a small space. It also seems worthy of 

 attention for orchard house and pot culture. 

 The Peach as a Cordon. — With the 

 Peach as an oblique cordon, a good result 

 is attained, the wall being covered very 

 rapidly ; and the neat laying in of a great number of shoots 

 on each side of the simple stem does away with the 

 crowded and unnatural appearance which a plantation of 

 cordon pears assumes when old and the stems are thickened. 

 But instead of the wood being closely pinched in, as people 

 might suppose in England from reading of the method of one 

 M. Grin, it is nailed in at each side of the branch, ay, 

 more so than if that branch were part and parcel of one of 

 the older and larger forms of tree. I once saw an excellent 

 result afforded by this system against the high back wall of 

 a vinery in the establishment of M. Rose-Charmeux, at 

 Thomery. By its means he perfectly covered his wall in a 

 short time, and gathered a great variety of fruit from a 

 small space. Out of doors I have seen it afford beautiful 

 results, and that not unfrequently. It is well calculated for 

 high walls, and it may be adopted for low ones by training 

 the trees at a more acute angle with the earth. 



The Spiral Cordon. 



