404 



JOUIlNAIi OF HOBTICOLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARBENEB. 



[ November 26, 1888. 



tlieir tastes, often succeed well. Their native climate is less 

 dissimilar, their calture is more under glass, and they seldom 

 go far from the humid mollifying air of the seaboard or the 

 great lakes. 



Notices of a few of the principal points of climate and other 

 differences, and how they are met or evaded, may be useful to 

 some of your readers who may choose to encounter difficulties 

 for the soke of ultimately attaining an independent position for 

 themselves, and a better provision for a family than old and 

 crowded countries afford. — PENNsyLVANiA. 



PEA.CH CULTIVATION.— No. H. 

 MoBE OF BEiKiNG. — The fruit is borne on the shoots of the 

 previous year. The shoot in the year previous to bearing 

 produces leaves at every joint, singly, or in twos and threes, 

 and in the axils of the leaves wood buds or Iruit buds are 

 formed. Fruit is also borne on spurs or short shoots closely 

 studded with blossom buds, and having blossom buds at the 

 extremity of each, and a growing point or wood bud which the 

 blossom buds in a manner enclose. 



Fig. 9. 



Fig. 9 represents a mature shoot of the current year fur- 

 nished with wood buds, a, and fruit buds, b. There are usually 

 at the bases of such shoots two or three wood buds, and in- 

 variably a wood bud at the point. 



Fig. 10 18 a representation of a short shoot or long spur, 

 having a few wood buds at the base, one at the extremity, a, 

 and a majority of fruit buds, l. 



Fig. 10. Fig. 11. 



Fig. 11 is a very short shoot, or spur proper, which is rather 

 uncommon, except where close pinching is practised, this kind 

 of spur being generally destroyed in the process of disbudding. 

 It is seldom present when long pruning is practised. Such 

 spurs rarely have any wood bnds except that at the extremity 

 (a), which is always one ; all others are fruit buds. 



Now, to comprehend the process of pruning, it is necessary 

 not only to know the difference between the various fruit-pro- 

 ducing shoots, but also the buds upon them ; for if in pruning 

 we cut back to a fruit bud no young shoot can proceed from it, 

 and the shoot must die back to the nearest wood bud. The 

 difference in the bnds will be seen on reference to the accom- 

 panying figures. The wood buds, a, have a pointed conical 

 form, and consist of scales enclosing a growing point. They 

 are generally solitary, except in the case of young trees, or 

 situated by the side of a fruit bud, when the buds are called 

 double, as at l,jig. 9, or between two fruit buds, when they are 

 termed triple buds, as at 2,^rig. 9. The fruit buds are more 

 plump and less pointed than the wood buds, still ovate, but in 

 or after February they become globular, and, as they unfold, 

 hoary. They are sometimes single, occasionally double, when 

 one may be a wood bud, or both fruit buds, and in old trees 

 there are occasionally three blossom buds together, but gene- 

 rally the triple buds have two fruit buds with a wood bud 

 between them. 



In young trees, wood buds in general are chiefly prodneed ; 

 in older trees, or those of considerable proportions, the dis- 

 position is to produce a majority of fruit buds, and without 

 pruning they become too numerous, hence the necessity for 

 pruning so as to promote the production of young shoots, and 

 maintain the vigour and fertility of the tree. 



Pruning.— The Peach and Nectarine require winter and 

 summer pruning. Winter pruning is best performed as soon 

 as the leaves have fallen ; hut some advocate its being deferred 

 until the buds have begun to swell, on the ground that they are 

 then distinguished with greater certainty. Winter pruning 

 may, however, be performed at any season, from the fall of the 

 leaf until the rising of the sap, but not in frosty weather, for to 

 cut and handle the shoots when frozen is a false economy of 

 labour, and leads to gumming, and the dying back of the shoots 



operated on. I can see no advantage in pruning and nailing 

 trees in periods of severe frost, and doing so is a needless triaj 

 of man's power of enduring cold. Summer pruning will com- 

 mence wiih the pushing of the shoots, and may be continued 

 as required throughout the summer. 



From the principal branches, shoots for bearing must annu- 

 ally be allowed to proceed. The extremities of these shoots iu 

 our climate are not generally sufficiently ripened, and that is 

 the principal reason why they should be shortened, it being well 

 in the first instance to proceed by stopping, and then shorten 

 back to a wood bud. Figs. 1 to 8 inclusive, show the training of 

 the principal and secondary branches, and the origination of the 

 bearing wood, and the directions for pruning will be understood 

 on reference to Figs. 9, 10, and 11, in which the wood and fruit 

 bnds are shown. It would be wrong to cut where the bar is on 

 the shoot. Jig. 9, for beneath that is a fruit bud, which would 

 not produce a shoot, and if the blossom produced a fruit, the 

 latter would fall, and the shoot die back to the nearest wood 

 bud or shoot. The shoot should be shortened to any of the 

 joints where there is a wood bud. If it be required for ex- 

 tension, or be the extension of a branch, it should be cut to a 

 bud on the side next the wall, as in that case it will proceed 

 straight ; but if the bud is situated on the front, the shoot 

 from the bud will curve outwards, or if on the side it will curve 

 sideways. The shoot. Jig. 10, has but three wood buds, two 

 at the base, and one at the apex. In pruning, it must be 

 cut above the wood buds at the base, or left its entire length. 

 If not pruned it would in the following year be naked, but no 

 doubt give fruit, and might then be pruned to the wood buds at 

 the base where the bar is, and shoots would proceed from it in 

 the following year. If cut to the wood buds before it produces 

 fruit, a snocessional shoot will be gained, it being desirable to 

 keep up the number of such shoots, and if they are not re- 

 quired they may be stopped and treated as spurs. 



On reference to Jig. i (page 267), it will be seen we have 

 main branches, and secondary branches from them, and that on 

 these the bearing shoots are produced, the tree bearing on the 

 shoots and natural and artificial spurs of the previous year. In 

 Jig. 8 (page 303), the fruit is produced on the shoots of the pre- 

 vious year only, there being no spurs, but shoots only, and on 

 the upper as well as under sides of the branches. Figs. 1 to 

 4 are intended to represent the short-pruning system, in which 

 summer pruning and stopping act a most important part, these 

 operations, in my opinion, having a powerful effect in thoroughly 

 ripening the wood, securing an equal distribution of the sap, 

 maintaining an equality of vigour in the several parts of the 

 tree, and completely preventing the sun-burning of the stem 

 and branches. By sun burning the sap is arrested, and the 

 branches become enfeebled and die off ; but this evil is pre- 

 vented by the foliage of the spurs and short stubby shoots 

 affording the necessary shade from the powerful rays of tha 

 sun. It is not the short-pruning system advocated by some, 

 which, however well it may answer under glass, and in a warm 

 climate, is not according to my experience adapted for trees 

 against walls in our climate. 



We have seen how to train the trees, how to originate the 

 branches producing bearing wood, or from which it is origi- 

 anted, and I will now endeavour to explain its management, 

 taking the tree shown iromjigs. 1 to 4 (see pages 266 and 267). 



Fig. 12. 



Fig. 12 shows part of a branch after the fall of the leaf, 

 a being a bearing shoot which in summer had been stopped 

 when it had grown 10 inches, or not more than 1 foot. Laterals 

 will result from the stopping ; these are to be stopped when 

 they have made one or two leaves, and as they push again stop 

 them at the first leaf. The laterals chiefly pushing just below 

 where the shoot was stopped lower down, a sufficiency of fruit 

 and wood buds will be formed. This shoot at the winter 

 pruning should be cut back to a wood bud, either by itself or 

 best when it has fruit buds at its side. This shortening will 

 do away with the cluster of laterals at the top, as shown by the 



