THE CORDON SYSTEM OF GROWING PEARS 
AT HOLME LACY. 
[The Pear trees at Holme Lacy, grown upon the Cordon System, have become so noted for the regularity 
with which they bear and for the size and flavour of their fruit, that the Pomona Committee of the Woolhope 
Club gladly welcome the following paper, which gives their history and the practical details of their management. 
The Committee are much indebted to Sir Henry E. C. Scudamore Stanhope, Bart., for writing it at their request. 
The Cordon System of growing pears is as well adapted for small gardens, as for those of a larger size, 
and that it may be the more clearly understood, a full page wood cut of the Holme Lacy trees, copied from a 
photograph, is also given.] 
It seems to be very generally admitted that of the fruits adapted for out-door cultivation in 
our variable climate, none surpasses the Pear in its merits as a dessert fruit; whether in regard to the 
number and excellence of the varieties produced ; or in regard to the length of time it is in season ; 
for with good management, Pears may be had from the latter end of July to the end of March. 
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The successful experiments of Thomas Andrew Knight in the production of new varieties of 
fruits by means of hybridization, which were published at the beginning of the present century in the 
“ Transactions of the London Horticultural Society,” gave that great stimulus to fruit culture, which 
has enriched our tables so much during the past fifty years. This progress has been nowhere more 
marked than it has been with Pears, for many of our most esteemed varieties are of recent origin. In 
France, Knight’s example was most perseveringly followed out, and with the best results. The 
climate is better adapted for Pears than our own, and the number of new kinds produced has been 
much greater. In addition to these new varieties, we owe also to France, the improved method of 
growing Pears, which is called the “ Cordon System.” 
There is much waste by the ordinary method of growing Pears, for when grafted on the pear 
stock and trained on the fan, or other old forms of culture the trees require from 12 to 15 years to 
cover the space allotted to them, and are then, except in skilled hands, apt to bear only on the ends 
of the branches, to the loss, as well of time, as of wall space. To obviate these defects, Monsieur 
Du Breuil, the eminent professor of fruit culture in France, in the year 1852 introduced the 
method of training Pear trees which he calls “ the Simple Cordon Oblique.” In his excellent little 
book “ De la conduite des Arbres Fruitiers” he gives the following directions for their growth 
(Pp. 90-99,) which are here somewhat briefly translated. 
“ Choose Pear trees (grafted on the Quince stock,) one year old, healthy and strong, having only a single shoot. Plant 
them 18 inches apart, inclining at an angle of 6o° each in the same direction, and prune back about a third of the length to a 
