PRUNING AND MANAGEMENT OF THE PEACH TREE. 149 



may reasonably be expected. The walls should be plastered ou 

 both sides an inch and a quarter thick, so as to admit of nails being 

 driven in training. Tbe wall should have a coping, which is made 

 to project 5 1 inches for an east aspect, and GJ inches for the 

 others. This projection is calculated for walls of ten feet high ; 

 but it should be increased in the same proportion if that height be 

 exceeded. It should also be increased by about two inches in walls 

 having a trellis, in order to compensate for the thickness of the latter 

 and its distance from the wall. Copings have the advantage of mode- 

 rating the flow of sap in all the points of the branches that are 

 nailed immediately beneath them ; of preserving the Peach-trees 

 from drip ; and of protecting them to a certain extent from spring 

 frosts which cut off the flower, the coping preventing the escape 

 of heat by radiation. 



52. As the west and south aspects are those from which the 

 rains are most to be feared, and which are liable to the strongest 

 action of the sun on the shoots and young leaves of the Peach- 

 tree affected by hoar frosts, we augment by means of straw mats 

 the good effects which result from the copings. It is for this 

 reason, that beneath the coping of walls with these two aspects we 

 fasten supports in the walls about three feet four inches apart. 

 These supports must be two feet long exclusive of the part fast- 

 ened in the wall. Straw mats of this width are fastened on these 

 supports, when the state of the weather renders them necessary. 



53. In the gardens of private individuals, it is the custom to 

 cover the wall with a trellis of laths, the intervals of which are 

 nine inches and a half by eight inches and a half. This method 

 is advantageous where plaster is scarce, but not so convenient for 

 training as the naked wall. On this account we do not use trel- 

 lises at Montreuil, although the keeping the walls in repair and 

 the nails and shreds are not less expensive than the trellis. 

 Trellises are also made of iron wire, which answer very well as 

 substitutes for those made of wood ; but they require some care 

 to be taken in tying the shoots to them, which will be noticed 

 when treating of that operation. 



54. For a new plantation, we lay out a border at the foot of the 

 wall five feet six inches to six feet six inches in breadth according 

 to our space. A good quantity of well-rotted dung is laid on ; the 

 ground is trenched to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, 

 and the soil must be well broken and equally mixed with the dung 

 throughout. Many are in the habit of digging the holes three 

 weeks or a month before planting. I never practise this myself. 



