r^^ 



PEUNINO AND MANAGEMENT OF THE PEACH TREE. 



40. Stocks can bo budilcd, if planted in the place whore the tree is to be formed, 

 qnite as well as those in the nursery. The last arc always budded with a single eye, 

 tlie shoot from which is pruned in the following spring. Winn budded in their 

 position against a wall, a bud can be j>laced on each side of the stock ; this gives two 

 eyes regularly placed for the formation of the two main branches. A year is gained 

 by this, for in the following spring, instead of pruning the shoot from the bud to 

 allow of the growth of the two lower eyes, destined to form the two main branches, 

 these already exist, and can receive their first pruning. I'ut fur that to take place, both 

 buds must liave taken well, and both niu.sl be equally strong. Yet it is true that if 

 one of thorn die, we find ourselves, by straightening and pruning, in the same position 

 as if we had inserted one bud only. 



41. Xursorymen often commit tlie error of propagating, for too long a time, a 

 variety that they know to be good by taking shoots for the supply of buds from the 

 plants of that sort that were worked the year before. It is better to renew these 

 buds by taking shoots from full-grown trees. This is the reason that I bud myself 

 the stocks which I have chosen in the nurseries ; by this I am also more sure of the 

 varieties ; I, however, take tlie precaution of not nailing to the wall some shoots on 

 the upper part of the tree which is to be propagated from, so that the sap may still 

 be in flow at the time of budding. The necessity of having shoots of good growth 

 for this purpose is the reason of nurserymen taking them from the open ground 

 rather than from the walls. 



42. By means of budding, several varieties of Peaches can be grown on the same 

 tree. This gives no advantage, except in a case where it is desirable to have, in a 

 short time, a greater variety of fruit than we should otherwise possess. Some buds 

 are worked on the strongest shoots of the middle of the tree. Often these buds 

 make shoots of five feet and more ; the eyes burst and form fruit-branches ; and 

 sometimes the following year ten or twelve Peaches are gathered from the first shoot 

 of the bud. 



43. By the same means it is possible to change the nature of the fruit of a Peach 

 tree. A person had planted double-flowering Peaches ; when he saw them his first 

 impulse was to order them to be destroyed. I persuaded him to do nothing of the 

 sort, hoping to make his trees productive in a short time. In the beginning of 

 August, I put ten or twelve buds on each tree, on the young wood as well as on the 

 main branches. The success was complete, and in two years afterward he gathered 

 splendid fruit. 



III. ox PLANTING THE PEACH TKEE. 



44. A. On the Choice of Trees for Planting. — Those who are unable or unwilling 

 to bud their own trees, should be careful properly to select, or cause to be selected, in 

 the nurseries, the sorts budded on the stocks best suited to their soil. As I have 

 already said, the preference is usually given to those budded on Almond stocks, with 



previously mentioned exception. 



After having chosen the sorts we require, we must pick out healthy and 



