THE BEST MODE OF PRUNING THE PEACH. 



499 



proof of this fact can be desired than one 

 which 1 have every day before my own 

 eyes. In my neighbor's grounds is a quan- 

 tity of peach trees, six years old, which 

 have never been pruned at all, except to 

 thin out a few branches, which have borne 

 two heavy crops, and already have that ex- 

 hausted and lean appearance, indicative of 

 feebleness and old age. The fruit which 

 they bore last year was small, and com- 

 paratively flavorless. In my own garden I 

 have a small plantation of peach trees, set 

 at the same time as my neighbor's, but pre- 

 senting a very different appearance indeed. 

 They have been pruned for the past three 

 years on the skortening-in mode. They 

 have borne every year good crops of the 

 largest and most delicious fruit to be found 

 within my knowledge, — the crop regularly 

 distributed over the branches. The trees 

 are in most capital health ; foliage deep 

 green, and their shape, from the system of 

 pruning adopted, round, bushy and symme- 

 trical. Altogether, I am very proud of the 

 effect of this mode of pruning upon my 

 trees ; and I assure you that many persons, 

 who have come here to examine them, have 

 gone away firmly resolved to "do likewise." 

 There cannot be a doubt that the peach 

 tree exhausts itself, and is short lived in 

 many soils, especially in those that are not 

 deep and rich, by excessive over bearing. 

 It is one of the great merits of the shorten- 

 ing-in mode, that by taking off a portion of 

 the ends of every bearing shoot — that is to 

 say, the young growth of the previous 

 year — it effectually prevents this evil; since 

 if you shorten-back the branch one-half, you 

 necessarily take off one-half of the blossom 

 buds, and diminish the probable crop of fruit 

 one-half. This is treating the peach tree 

 very nearly as it needs to be treated ; for if 

 one-half of the blossoms are thus taken off, 

 it leaves the tree provided with just so 



many as it can carry regularly, every year, 

 without exhausting itself; and the fruit that 

 is left is much larger, and a great deal more 

 delicious than if the tree goes unpruned, 

 and bears a full crop. This I have twice 

 satisfied myself of by direct experiment, on 

 trees side by side, of the same variety ; and 

 you could scarcely credit the improved qua- 

 lity of the pruned tree, without camparing 

 them. 



One of my acquaintances, who is an in- 

 telligent orchardist, and grows peaches for 

 market on a large scale, now makes his 

 trees branch out, or form their heads quite 

 low, and shortens-them-in with a pair of 

 large hedge-shear:' ,{\.\\e blade two feet long,) 

 fastened on long handles. In this way it 

 is but a short job to prune a whole orchard. 



I have used wood ashes as a manure for 

 peach trees with the greatest benefit. It 

 gives them a particularly healthy and 

 sound look; that is, without becoming gross, 

 or over-luxuriant, they make a moderate 

 growth of good plump shoots, have very 

 healthy foliage, bear high coloured and well 

 ripened crops. 



I use wood ashes, either leached or un- 

 leached. The former is, if quite fresh, 

 about three times as strong as the latter ; 

 and, therefore, while half a peck of un- 

 leached is sufficient, usually, for a young 

 tree just beginning to bear, I have found 

 half a bushel not too much of the leached 

 ashes. It ought to be spread over the sur- 

 face, and dug in a few inches only. Pro- 

 bably the best time of applying it is in 

 October ; but I have also found it to an. 

 swer admirably as late as June, — very soon, 

 if the season is a rainy one, changing the 

 common colour of the leaves to a deep eme- 

 rald hue. 



I have so high an opinion of the good 

 effect of ashes, that, (agreeing with you, 

 that the yellows is only disease, caused by 



