36 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
January  8,  1903. 
as  a  few  of  them  are,  it  must  be  our  task  to, study  its  needs, 
for  this  often  simply  means  that  they  merely  require  some 
different  treatment  from  the  other  members  of  their  species, 
and  given  this,  thrive  apace.  The  chief  danger  to  the 
selector  lies  in  the  seed  pans.  The  crop  yielded  by  a  suc¬ 
cessful  spore  culture  is  usually  enormous,  far  more  than 
the  mere  amateur  can  deal  with  as  regards  bringing  to 
maturity. 
The  first  essential,  therefore,  is  to  start  with  spores 
from  a  thoroughbred,  since  the  attempt  to  breed  out  defects 
is  rarely  successful,  and,  at  any  rate,  not  worth  the 
amateur’s  while.  After  the  first  pricking  out  into  pans,  and 
when  the  fronds  are  about  2in  or  Bin  high,  the  raiser  should 
go  over  them  carefully  w'ith  a  pair  of  pointed  sharp  scissors 
^d  cut  out  ruthlessly  at  the  base  all  those  whiclr  are  strays, 
i.e.,  from  alien  spores  accidentally  introduced,  and  also 
all  those  which  show  any  defect  of  make.  At  the  same  time 
he  can  carefully  prick  out  into  a  separate  pan  any  which 
give  evidence  of  exceptional  promise.  In  this  Avay  he  will 
be  at  once  giving  more  room  to  the  good  ones  left  in  the 
pan  and  helping  on  the  possible  improvements.  By  pursu¬ 
ing  this  course  he  arrives  at  length  at  a  crop  of  at  any  rate 
the  right  sort,  Avhile  minimising  the  risk  of  growing  on 
those  of  the  AATong.  Thoroughbreds  are,  as  a  rule,  right 
from  the  beginning,  and  hence  there  is  little  danger  of 
losing  a  good  thing  by  proceeding  in  the  w^ay  suggested. 
With  regard  to  the  “strays”  aforesaid,  if  there  be  any 
promise  in  these,  they  can,  of  course,  be  lifted  instead  of 
cut  off ;  but  as  a  rule  they  will  be  found  to  belong  to  such 
common  types  or  varieties  as  have  the  obtrusive  knack  of 
coming  up  everywhere.  To  reduce  the  risk  of  strays  as  far 
as  possible,  spores  should  be  gathered  as  soon  as  ripe.  The 
best  plan  is  to  sever  a  spore-bearing  pinna,  hold  it  under  a 
tap  and  wash  it  thoroughly  (not,  of  course,  rubbing  it  so  as 
to  disturb  the  spore  heaps),  dry  it  in  blotting  paper,  and 
place  it  back  downwards  on  a  sheet  of  glazed  ^aper.  In  a 
few  hours  the  spores  Avill  show  themselves  in  the  form  of  a 
brownish  powder,  which  can  then  be  scattered  very  thinly 
over  the  spore  pan.  A  glass  being  placed  over  it  imme¬ 
diately  to  prevent  access  of  floating  spores  in  the  air,  the 
subsequent  crop  Avill  probably  be  quite  pure.  Late  in  the 
season  the  shed  spores  pervade  the  Ferns  generally,  and 
hence  is  making  a  sowing  from  one  frond  or  Fern  the  pro¬ 
bability  is  that  innumerable  spores  of  all  adjacent  kinds  are 
sown  as  well ;  hence  above  precautions. — Chas.  T.  Druery, 
F.L.S.,  V.M.H. 
Cordon  Pears. 
The  term  coi’don,  Avhen  used  in  its  strictly  correct  sense, 
means  a  tree  confined  to  a  single  stem,  though  the  terms 
double,  treble,  and  branched  cordon  are  commonly  used. 
It  may  be  stated  at  the  outset  that  this  article  will  deal 
solely  Avith  the  single  cordon,  and  that  the  term  cordon, 
Avhenever  used,  denotes  this  single  stem  tree. 
It  is  so  recently  that  the  cordon  system  of  groAAung  Pears, 
to  say  nothing  of  Apples,  has  become  at  all  common,  that 
many  people  A^ft  be  surprised  to  hear  that,  so  long  ago  as 
1852,  Mons.  Du  Breuil,  a  professor  of  fruit  culture  in  France, 
introduced  a  method  of  training  Pears  which  he  called  “  the 
simple  cordon  oblique.”  Probably  the  first  to  groAv  Pears 
on  this  system  in  this  country  AA^as  Sir  H.  E.  C.  Scudamore 
Stanhope,  Bart.,  aaLo  introduced  a  number  of  maiden  trees 
from  France  in  the  early  sixties.  These  trees  Avere  Avorked 
upon  the  Quince,  such  trees  not  having  been  easily- 
obtained  from  English  nursery-men  hitherto. 
Mons.  Du  Breuil  had  described  the  rearing  of  cordons 
in  a  book  entitled  “  De  la  Conduite  des  Arbres  Fruitiers,” 
and  this  gentleman  planted  the  trees  at  Holme  Lacy,  his 
seat  in  Herefordshire,  along  the  base  of  a  good  Avail,  and 
trained  them  as  single  oblique  cordons,  according  to  M.  Du 
Breuil’s  methods,  the  result  of  Avhich  he  describes  in  a  very 
entertaining  article  in  “  The  Herefordshire  Pomona,”  to 
which  article  I  am  indebted  for  some  of  the  facts  mentioned 
here.  The  OAvner  of  the  trees  states  that,  at  the  time  of 
Avriting,  the  trees  Avere  fourteen  years  old,  and  had  so  far 
shoAvn  no  diminution  in  \-igour,  but  continued  to  produce 
excellent  crops  of  fruit,  and  that,  although  the  fruits  Avere 
not  unduly  thinned,  the  Aveierhts  of  some  of  them  Avere  as 
folloAvs  : — Beurre  Superfin,  Marechal  de  la  Cour  (syn.  Con- 
seiller  de  la  Cour),  and  Glou  Morceau,  14oz  each  ;  Josephine 
de  Malines,  lloz  ;  and  Easter  Beurre,  IGoz. 
The  successful  culture  of  cordon  Pears,  though  not 
difficult,  calls  forth  all  the  fruitgroAver’s  care  and  foresight, 
and  the  exercise  of  all  the  knoAA-ledge  applicable  which  he 
possesses.  At  the  same  time,  perhaps  for  this  reason,  there 
are  few  more  fascinating  things  in  horticulture,  to  those 
Avho  make  it  their  hobby,  than  Pear  culture,  as  this  fruit  so 
w-ell  repays  the  trouble  bestowed  upon  it  both  in  productiAe- 
ness  and  quality,  while  the  trees  themselves  are  beautiful 
in  floAver,  foliage,  and  fruit.  Those  most  indifferent  to 
gardening  of  any  sort  will  ahA-ays  take  an  interest  in  first- 
class  Pears  on  the  table.  They  do  not  realise  that  their 
production  is  a  scientific  occupation ;  that  the  grow-ing  of 
all  high-class  fruit,  in  fact,  rests  on  a  Avell-defined  scientific 
basis. 
In  embarking  upon  this  method  of  growing  Pears  one 
should  either  take  them  under  one’s  own  special  care,  as  a 
part  of  one’s  gardening  hobby,  or  get  one’s  gardener  to  read 
up  some  exhaustive  and  reliable  article  upon  their  treat¬ 
ment,  as  otherwise  the  results  Avill  not  be  so  satisfactory 
as  one  has  been  led  to  expect.  To  begin  with,  the  planting 
is  important.  Except  for  very  dry  soils,  cordon  Pears  should 
always  be  worked  upon  the  Quince  stock,  as  they  grow  too- 
vigorously  upon  the  Pear  stock  for  such  a  restricted  form 
of  training.  There  are  a  few,  like  Ne  Plus  Meuris,  AA-hich 
do  not  succeed  on  the  Quince,  and  a  fair  number  which,  to 
induce  early  fertility,  should  be  double  grafted,  that  is  to 
say,  a  strong  groAving  Pear  should  first  be  grafted  on  the 
Quince  stock,  and  then  the  Pear  it  is  desired  to  fruit  should 
be  grafted  on  that.  Any  good  nurseryman’s  catalogue  is  a 
reliable  guide  in  this  mattei-. 
Double-grafted  trees  cost  a  shilling  or  two  more,  as  they 
take  a  year,  or  even  tAvo  years  more  to  rear,  but  trees 
reared  in  this  w-ay  are  ahvays  extremely  fruitful,  and  begin 
bearing  two  or  three  years  earlier  than  those  particular 
sorts  if  worked  direct  upon  the  Quince. 
It  is  an  established  rule  in  planting  fruit  trees  to  plant 
them  at  the  same  depth  as  that  at  Avhich  they  were  groAving 
in  the  nursery,  but  an  exception  must  be  made  Avith  Pears 
on  the  Quince  stock,  which  should  be  planted  right  up  to 
the  graft,  and  then  just  earthed  up  above  the  junction. 
Some  cordon  Pears  I  planted  in  this  way  one  November  had 
emitted  white  roots  all  along  the  stock  right  up  to  the  junc¬ 
tion  by  the  folloAving  April,  AA-hich,  of  course,  helped  the 
trees  to  overcome  the  effects  of  moving  much  more  rapidly. 
The  principal  reason  for  planting  so  deeply  is  that  the 
Quince  is  a  lover  of  moisture,  and  the  stem,  Avhen  not  carry¬ 
ing  its  own  head,  Avill  crack  badly  if  exposed  to  the  sun  and 
Avind,  thus  lessening  the  supply  of  nutriment  to  the  tree. 
At  the  same  time  it  must  not  be  planted  any  deeper  than  the 
graft,  or  roots  will  be  emitted  above  the  graft,  and  then  the 
Pear  Avill  be  practically  on  its  OAvn  roots,  when  growth  will 
either  become  so  vigorous  that  the  tree  will  not  bear,  or  the 
roots  getting  into  an  unsuitable  medium,  will  induce  an 
unhealthy  condition. 
Pruning  is  naturally  a  very  important  part  of  such  an 
artificial  method  of  training.  In  this  matter  much  must  be 
left  to  the  judgment  of  the  individual,  who  will  have  a 
know-ledge  of  the  local  conditions  of  climate  and  soil.  In 
some  parts  of  the  West  of  England,  where  the  climate  is 
very  moist  and  the  soil  very  rich,  summer  pinching  fails  to 
check  luxuriance  of  groAA-th  and  induce  fruitfulness,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  often  only  produces  a  mass  of  sappy  growth, 
caused  by  "the  fruit  buds  bursting  out  into  woody  shoots. 
In  such  cases  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  to  lift  the  trees 
after  tAvo  or  three  years’  groAA'th,  and  in  other  cases,  Avhere 
there  is  too  much  production  of  Avood  before  the  bearing  of 
a  heavy  crop  of  fruit  has  produced  a  well-balanced  growth. 
The  system  practised  at  Holme  Lacy,  as  set  forth  in  the 
article  above  referred  to,  is  to  shorten  the  shoots  twice 
during  the  summer,  once  after  the  midsummer  shoot,  and 
again  in  September,  under  Avhich  management  the  trees  are 
kept  abundantly  furnished  Avith  spurs.  If  this  is  successful 
in  Herefordshire  it  Avould  probably  work  well  anywhere  in 
the  West  of  England. 
In  drier  ancl  more  sunny  districts  summer  pinching  is 
A’ery  effective,  and  this  is  the  usual  method  in  the  original 
home  of  the  cordon — France.  It  consists  in  pinching  all  the 
stronger  side  shoots  to  five  or  six  leaves  as  soon  as  the  basal 
leaA'es  are  Avell  developed  ;  if  pinched  shorter  the  fruit  buds 
at  the  base  of  the  shoots  may  bi’eak  out  into  leaf ;  and 
shortening  the  resulting  shoots  to  two  buds,  and  so  on  again 
if  necessary. — A.  Petts. 
(To  be  continued.) 
