i8 7 o.] THE CULTIVATION OF HARDY FRUITS. 455 



either leaves or fruit, while the extremities are crowded with both 

 in order to make up for the deficiency elsewhere. This is no 

 uncommon sight, however, and is simply the result of an injudi- 

 cious handling of the knife at the pruning season. Let the cul- 

 tivator do his best to keep a supply of wood near home, and the 

 tree itself will make ample provision for the extremities without his 

 assistance. The disbudding season is perhaps the period when the 

 greatest mischief is done in this way. In performing this operation 

 let the best back-buds remain to form shoots ; and if this one simple 

 matter is attended to year after year, there will never be a lack of 

 fruit-bearing wood regularly distributed all over the tree. Some 

 cultivators have tried to grow peaches upon what I may call a semi- 

 spur system, but as in every case the fruit of the Peach is produced 

 upon the wood formed the previous year, I see many drawbacks to 

 the method, and little or nothing in its favour. I would therefore 

 never leave a spur, but, where the knife is used, would make a clean 

 cut, removing the entire shoot. I consider another great error is 

 committed by leaving too much wood. If the shoots are left at a 

 distance of from 4 to 6 inches apart all over the tree, there will be less 

 disbudding required in spring, while there will be plenty of wood to 

 bear a crop, which will have a greater chance of getting well ripened 

 than if the tree were crowded with foliage. Root-pruning should be 

 regularly attended to every two or three years, and the probability is 

 that by the time the tree is eight or ten years of age it will be in a 

 regular fruit-bearing condition for life. As in the case of other 

 fruit-trees so is it with the Peach — early autumn is the best time for 

 performing this operation. From the middle of August till the end 

 of September may be considered about the best season of the year. 

 I would further recommend that the operation be performed much in 

 the same way as already recommended for other fruits, and at the 

 same time using the usual precautions for protecting the roots from 

 drought, frost, or excessive rains. If such simple things as these get 

 the attention they deserve, the cultivation of the Peach and Nectarine 

 as hardy fruits is not such a difficult matter as some suppose it to be. 

 The most difficult matter in their cultivation is the protection of the 

 blossom and young fruit from the frosts of spring ; this being over- 

 come, the greatest obstacle has been surmounted : but as it is my inten- 

 tion to speak more fully on this point hereafter, I will drop the subject 

 for the present. 



There can be no two opinions regarding the situation which is best 

 suited for the Peach and Nectarine. A south exposure is the only 

 one from which success may be looked for. I cannot deny but that 

 I have seen good crops occasionally taken from other situations, yet 



