28 PREMATURE DECAY OF 



and then died ; and still more had their constitutions irretrievably 

 weakened. 



Another bad result of injury to the earliest shoots is, that the 

 length of the growing season is thereby curtailed, and the young 

 wood in the following autumn wants that firmness of structure 

 which gardeners term " well-ripened," and is consequently much 

 more subject to gum ; neither are the future flower-buds so 

 perfectly formed as is necessary for the production of fruit. 

 Untoward circumstances like the foregoing I hold to be a more 

 fertile source of destruction to Peach-trees than the present system 

 of pruning them while young ; but then climate is the cause of 

 these evils, and " climate we cannot control." True ; but if we 

 cannot absolutely control, we can modify climate ; and on that 

 principle I maintain that the cheap frames and sashes, or lilliputian 

 Peach houses, which some writers have so strenuously recom- 

 mended, can be much more profitably employed in covering 

 be.u'ing trees now growing against walls. With the aid of the 

 saw-mill, cheap timber, and cheap glass, an inexpensive structure 

 can be built which will effectually protect both blossoms and 

 young wood against chilling spring frosts, and when by this means 

 a crop of fruit has been insured, the same apparatus will assist in 

 ripening it in a wet and sunless autumn, such as we have lately 

 passed. Several of these erections are now in use in this neigh- 

 bourhood, and (with one exception) all that I have seen answer 

 exceedingly well. 



Another fertile source of injury, acting also by preventing the 

 proper development of the young shoots, is the aphis. This insect 

 frequently does incalculable mischief to wall-trees by being 

 suffered to establish itself upon them early in the season. It will, 

 perhaps, be said that, as this evil might so readily be removed by 

 a few syringes with tobacco-water, it can only occur through the 

 negligence or the laziness of the gardener ; in answer to which I 

 would beg to observe, that in eight out of ten cases where it does 

 occur, the discredit ought in justice to rest upon the gardener's 

 employer for refusing to allow sufficient help at that most harassing 

 season of the year. No person who has not himself had the 

 management of a wall of full-grown Peach-trees can form any 

 notion of the great amount of attention, and consequently of time, 

 they require to keep them in good condition. 



Generally speaking, a vigorous Peach-tree is not afforded 

 sufficient space to extend its branches, for either the wall is too 

 low (some eight or nine feet, whereas it ought not to be less than 



