1879.] THINNING AND SWELLING OF PEACHES. 207 



ton last year, which, if I remember rightly, gained first honours. These 

 fruits were grown in a soil and climate which is not famed for its bene- 

 ficial effects upon vegetation. What, then, was the cause of such ex- 

 cellent results 1 Superior cultivation we should suppose, and nothing 

 else. Well, setting aside isolated instances of first-rate cultivation, and 

 coming to what is seasonable work just now, we may be able to point 

 out how good results may be obtained by attending to a few standard 

 rules, which are better known than they are acted upon. In the first 

 place, the favourable season of last year left the wood of Peach-trees 

 in the pink of condition, where it was properly thinned out and where 

 the roots were liberally supplied with water during the autumn. 



The winter, it is true, has been about the worst on record for early 

 forcing ; and yet early Peaches, set as thick as Peas, without any artifi- 

 cial impregnation beyond shaking the trees, upon occasions when the 

 weather admitted, of giving a little air, and keeping an atmosphere 

 drier than usual. 



Disbudding, and thinning of shoots and fruits, will have been the 

 order of the day for some time past. 



Trees — it matters not how healthy they are — that are overladen in 

 the early part of the season with superfluous shoots and fruit are doing 

 unnecessary work, which destroys the prospect of fine fruit as effectu- 

 ally as if they had been cut through with a knife. It has been a neces- 

 sity with us for some years past to have to resort to a good deal of 

 scheming, on account of having to grow Peaches on narrow trellises, 

 which necessitated a course that is not usual under other circum- 

 stances. The difficulty in such cases is, that the vigour of the tree 

 being directed upwards to the extremity of the trellis, the very best 

 wood is formed where it has to be cut away, causing a loss of sap 

 which, if it were possible to direct and retain in the lower portions 

 of the tree, would exercise an invigorating influence productive of 

 the best results. Disbudding has, therefore, to be performed by care- 

 ful stages, to encourage a regular growth, but not to interfere with 

 the natural motion of the sap by removing too many shoots at one 

 time. The fruits were thinned out at once, leaving those of a bronzy 

 tinge (an appearance indicative of good health) at the base of the 

 shoot, which was intended to have its full run of growth — a few 

 spurs being also formed to fill up vacancies which may have occurred 

 by accident, or through any defect in training. After the crop is 

 regulated, the trees should be gone over, and each shoot of the pre- 

 ceding year should be examined as to the number of shoots of the 

 current year that was left upon it when it was disbudded : these 

 should be thinned out, or cut back, according to their respective posi- 

 tions in the tree, to a healthy young shoot which promises to travel a 

 good length, with a fruit at its base, on the upper part of the trellis, 

 where it would receive all the advantages of warmth and sunshine, 

 which is so beneficial to the development of fine fruit. Now, suppose 



