THE FLORAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 145 



one side of the tree than on the other. Although the fan admits of 

 the most equal distribution of sap, yet all branches do not receive 

 the same amount of it ; those most vertical receive a greater supply 

 than those below them, therefore crop according to the position of 

 the branches. The most vertical shoots should carry the most fruit. 

 Disbudding a summer pruning should be gradually persevered in 

 until there remained only as much wood as was necessary for the 

 winter pruning. This will allow the leaves and shoots the free 

 benefit of sun and air. In winter the tree3 should be unnailed, 

 to retard the flowering period as much as possible. Pruning in 

 severe frosty weather should be avoided, and wherever shortening 

 was required I would cut at a wood bud. After this the shoots 

 should be again nailed to the wall. 



A short time before the blooms expand, the trees should receive 

 some protection. If the fruit sets in greater numbers than is required, 

 a portion should now and then be removed, until only about a tenth 

 more remained than would be necessary for the crop. The latter are 

 left as a guard against accidents. I have noticed that the finest 

 fruit is situated at the base of the young shoots, which must be 

 pinched at about six inches beyond it ; if this is not done the organic 

 matter that should go to the increase of the fruit will be appro- 

 priated by the shoot. I would dispense with cropping the borders 

 as much as possible, and on no account would I have borders dug 

 with spades, as the most valuable roots belonging to a tree are those 

 nearest the surface, and such roots would be destroyed. All plants 

 exhaust soils, therefore it will become necessary to manure the 

 border with thoroughly decomposed manures when the trees have 

 attained a good bearing state; the most troublesome pests to which 

 Peach trees are subject are green-fly and mildew ; the former may 

 easily be destroyed by syringing with tobacco-water, after the rate 

 of two ounces to the gallon, and the latter can be got rid of by 

 dusting with sulphur while the trees are wet with dew. 



WILD FLOWERS OF MAT. 



jHAT particular flower was in the minds of those who 

 contributed somewhat to the founding of the great 

 American republic by naming a ship that afterwards 

 became famous, the " May Flower ? " A pretty query 

 that, perhaps, for the speculative, but a narrow one, for 

 doubtless if we are to select a flower and call it the May flower with 

 emphasis, it must be either the buttercup or the hawthorn. These 

 are pre-eminently flowers of May. It would seem as if we had been 

 transported unawares to some other planet if we did not see either 

 of them in the course of the merry month. " This is indeedthe "merry 

 month " when bees from flower to flower do hum," and the gold of 

 the meadows and the snow of the hedge-rows help materially in the 

 excitement of its merriment. The fields are full of buttercups, and 



M.y. 10 



