224 THE GARDENER. [May 



PEACH CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



PROPAGATION AND SELECTION OF TREES. 



The propagation of Peaches and Nectarines being a process almost 

 entirely confined to nursery-gardens, it is not my intention to enter very 

 elaborately into tlie details connected with it, for very few growers or 

 forcers of the Peach are ever called upon to propagate their own trees. 

 For the following leading particulars connected with the subject I am 

 indebted to Mr Pitman, who for half a century has been connected with 

 the firm of Messrs Osborne &, Sons, and who for the greater portion of 

 that period has had the management of the fruit-tree department ; and 

 all who are acquainted with the quality of his productions will accept 

 him as an authority of the highest order in the propagation of Peaches 

 and Nectarines. 



The stocks used for budding the Peach and Nectarine on are the 

 Mussel plum, and the Brompton or Mignonne plum. The stocks are 

 raised by layering in the ordinary way. In preparing them for bud- 

 ding, they are dressed and cut to a length of about 2 feet, and planted 

 out in autumn or early winter in lines. The following autumn they 

 are taken up, assorted, and again planted in lines, but wider apart than 

 the previous or first year. The succeeding summer, generally from 

 the middle of July to the middle of August, they are budded with the 

 desired varieties of Peaches and Nectarines. The following summer 

 the buds make their first growth, and the trees are termed " Dwarf 

 Maidens." In the autumn of the same year they are taken up, root- 

 pruned, and planted in lines 4 feet apart, and 2 feet from plant to plant. 

 Their growth, which generally consists of one strong shoot, is allowed 

 to remain intact till the following spring. 



They are then cut back more or less closely, with the view of secur- 

 ing the production of one central and two lateral shoots right and left ; 

 consequently not less than three buds must be left in the process of 

 pruning. The tree is thus with its three growths termed a one-year- 

 trained tree. In the spring of the following year each of these three 

 shoots is cut back to from three to four buds from the base, so as to 

 secure a tree with from nine to ten shoots. The tree having perfected 



the growth of these shoots, it 

 is, as far as its nursery career 

 is concerned, a full-trained tree 

 (fig. 11), and is ready for 

 being transferred from the 

 nursery -rows to the Peach - 

 house trellis. 



In the case of new varie- 

 ties, the process of producing 

 trained trees is hastened by pinching the top of the first year's growth 



