APRIL. 109 



wood is allowed to become crowded and ill-ripened, through the want 

 of timely summer pruning ; this will leave little to be done in the 

 spring, further than shortening back the wood, and perhaps re-arranging 

 some of the shoots. 



It will greatly assist the ripening of the present year's wood, if the 

 border can be protected from rain after August. Some of your readers 

 may perhaps be surprised at this statement, which is nevertheless true. 

 The Peach is a native of the dry, warm climate of the East, and is 

 found to live longest and thrive best in climates similarly constituted ; 

 as in America and the south of Europe, the autumns of which are dry 

 and hot, and therefore well adapted for ripening the wood of the current 

 season's growth, which becomes hard and solid to a degree beyond 

 anything the most favoured season in this country produces. If, 

 however, we can prevent rain from penetrating our Peach borders after 

 about the middle of August, we shall check that luxuriant growth 

 which the rains of our autumns produce, and which, aided by a damp 

 and not over bright atmosphere, is continued often till very late in the 

 autumn, and the results are wood of great strength and greenness 

 without fructivorous buds, and with a strong tendency to gum and 

 canker in the next season. It should, therefore, be the aim of the 

 cultivator to counteract this evil, incident to our climate, by remedies 

 I am endeavouring to point out ; viz., shallow and somewhat poor 

 borders, and keeping the latter dry during the autumn and winter. 

 No fears need be entertained that the trees will suffer in consequence ; 

 if it appears to stop the growth of the wood (which will hardly be the 

 case all at once, unless the border was previously very dry),, so much 

 the better ; you will have obtained an important step towards success, 

 as by this the wood will have time to ripen better, and to form fruit- 

 bearing buds in greater abundance. We need scarcely point out how 

 this can best be effected — a coating of concrete spread an inch thick 

 over the border, is an easy, and to some an inexpensive, method ; 

 while slates, tarpauling, and various other contrivances, may be 

 employed by others ; it matters not how, so long as it is done in some 

 way. The borders I have recommended are narrow, for one reason, 

 that they may more easily be protected from rains. In this operation, 

 some regard must be had to the peculiar locality of the situation. For 

 instance, on the east coast — say from Norfolk to Hampshire — much 

 less rain falls than on the opposite coast, or even in the midland 

 counties ; and in such places the precautions I am advocating are not 

 so imperatively necessary as when the climate is wet, a condition 

 generally accompanied by a cloudy sky, rendering the ripening process 

 more difficult, and therefore a dry border indispensable for obtaining 

 well ripened wood. 



Towards the middle of October, the leaves will be fast changing 

 colour, provided the wood is in that state of forwardness we expect, 

 and as they are readily detached, they may be brushed off with a kw 

 sprays of birch tied together. This will admit the air more freely to 

 the wood, and when the greater part of the leaves are fallen off, 

 unnail or loosen the present year's wood from the wall ; this will freely 

 expose them to all the weather, and if the wood is (as I take for 



