80 
THE ELOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
that time the new tree is in a condition to take care of itself, and thus in five 
or six years the void is filled up. 
3rd, Narrow strips of wall and of any height may be made use of for the 
vertical cordon, such as the end of a 
barn or stables or spaces between 
doors and windows, inasmuch as each 
tree only occupies in width and space 
15 inches. 
4th, The varieties may be as nu¬ 
merous as the trees planted, and the 
successive maturity of the fruit much 
extended. 
5th, In Normandy the average 
production of fruit-bearing trees on 
this plan is 10 fruit to the metre of 
stem, or say 9 to the yard. 
Thus with stems 3 to 3£ yards 
long, on a wall 40 yards in length 
(which would accommodate but 
three fan-shaped trees), a pro¬ 
duce would be obtained on ninety 
stems of say from 2000 to 2500 
fruit. 
6th, Conceive further the in¬ 
creased facility of pruning and 
training generally such a com¬ 
pact subject as this, and how 
much easier and less expensive to preserve from weather, frosts, attacks of 
insects, &c.; while the vertical position of the stems affords much freer access 
to light and air. 
7th, When circumstances do not admit of the use of walls for fruit culture, 
the vertical cordon is admirably adapted for application to the more economical 
support of espaliers, because the much more early production of fruit obtained 
renders it of less importance to have so durable but so expensive a support as a 
wall, and thus a heavy expense at the onset, inconvenient to many, is avoided. 
As to objections, those urged at first, but now abandoned against this new 
plan, arose from the dread that the small extent given to the skeleton or 
framework of the trees would injure their fruit-producing powers by reason of 
the excessive vigour thus induced. But this vigour is in exact proportion to 
the extent of the soil, from which the trees derive their nourishment, and as 
they are on this account planted at intervals of only 16 inches, the fear has 
proved unfounded. It was, on the other hand, asserted that trees so crowded 
could not live; but from each of them only an extent of stem is exacted 
proportioned to the soil the roots have. 
It was first objected that the first formation of such a plantation was more 
expensive than by the old system. This is true as regards the cost of the 
greater number of yearling trees to be planted in a given space ; but, besides 
that, the pruning operation in this case is much more rapidly executed and a 
considerable saving of time and labour is obtained. The maximum result 
cannot be attained by the old methods until the eighteenth or twentieth year. 
There is thus a gain of fourteen years, sufficient to cover three or four times 
the difference in the original cost of planting. J, F. 
