716 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



they may be grown in some cases as low as espaliers, covering with mats in spring to protect the blossom. 

 In a very warm season there can be no doubt the fruit of the hardier sorts so grown, would be higher- 

 colored and of superior flavor, and the trees would be less subject to the red spider. Early autumn plant- 

 ing is best on a dry soil. Spring planting may be successfully performed in February and March ; the 

 sooner, so as the weather be favorable, the better ; that the trees may take root immediately before the 

 dry warm season commences." 



4498. Mode of bearing. " All the varieties of the peach and nectarine bear the fruit 

 upon the young wood of a year old ; the blossom-buds rising immediately from the eyes 

 of the shoots. The same shoot seldom bears after the first year, except on some casual 

 small spurs on the two years' wood, which is not to be counted upon. Hence, the trees 

 are to be pruned as bearing entirely on the shoots of the preceding year ; and a full 

 supply of every year's shoots must be trained in for successional bearers the following 

 season." (Abercrombie.) Du Petit Thouars denies the propriety of the distinction 

 usually made of wood-buds and flower-buds in the peach-tree and stalks, and that each 

 leaf produces a bud at its base, which soon becomes triple, the two outer proving flower- 

 buds, and the middle one a leaf or wood bud. 



4499. The summer pruning, " in May and June, and occasionally in the succeeding months, is to regu- 

 late the shoots of the same year, and to prevent improper growths by disbudding. Pinch off fore-right 

 buds or shoots ; and pinch off or cut out ill placed, very weakly, spongy, and deformed shoots, and 

 very strong luxuriant growths ; retaining a plentiful supply of good lateral shoots in all parts of the tree ; 

 and leaving a leader to each branch. Let them mostly be trained in at full length all summer, about 

 three inches asunder, for next year's bearers ; and divest them of any lateral twigs, to prevent a thicket- 

 like intricacy, and to promote a healthy fruitful growth in the shoots themselves. In the course of the 

 summer regulation, if any partial vacancy occurs, or should a young tree under training want an addi- 

 tional supply of wood, shorten some convenient-placed strong shoot in June to a few eyes, to furnish a 

 supply of laterals the same season." 



4500. The winter pruning " may be performed at the fall of the leaf, and thence, according to some 

 professional writers, at ahy time in mild weather until spring. It should be completed in February, or 

 early in March, before the" blossom-buds are considerably advanced, which are distinguishable by being 

 round, plump, and prominent, while the leaf and shoot buds are oblong and narrow. There is some ad- 

 vantage in pruning when the blossom-buds can be certainly known. Retain, in all parts of the tree, a 

 competent supply of such regular-grown shoots of last year as are apparently fruitful in blossom-buds. 

 Most part of these should be shortened, not indiscriminately, but according to their strength and situation ; 

 the very strong shoots should be left longest, being topped about one fourth, or one third ; shoots of 

 middling vigor reduce one third or one half; and prune the very weak to two or three buds. Always cut 

 at a shoot-bud, to advance for a leader : sometimes a shoot-bud lies between a twin blossom-bud : cut half 

 an inch above the bud. As many new shoots as will lay from three to six inches asunder may be deemed 

 a competent supply for next year's bearers. Cut out quite close the redundant, irregular, and other 

 improper shoots : remove or reduce some part of the former bearers of the two preceding years, cutting 

 the most naked quite away, and others down to the most eligible younger branch or well placed shoot. 

 Also take out all diseased and dead wood : retaining young, where necessary, to fill a vacuity." 



4501. A mode of pruning adapted to cold and late situations is recommended by Knight as calculated to 

 obtain fruit-bearing spurs on the peach, and these spurs he finds best calculated in such situations 

 and late seasons, to generate well organised and vigorous blossoms. " Instead of taking off so large a 

 portion of the young shoots, and training in a few only to a considerable length, as is usually done, and 

 as I should myself do to a great extent, in the vicinity of London, and in every favorable situation, I pre- 

 serve a large number of the young shoots, which are emitted in a proper direction in early spring by the 

 yearling wood, shortening each where necessary, by pinching off the minute succulent points, generally to 

 the length of one or two inches. Spurs which lie close to the wall are thus made, upon which numerous 

 blossom-buds form very early in the ensuing summer ; and upon such, after the last most unfavorable sea- 

 son, and in a situation so high and cold that the peach-tree, in the most favorable seasons, had usually 

 produced only a few feeble blossoms ; I observed as strong and vigorous blossrfms in the present spring, as 

 I have usually seen in the best seasons and situations; and I am quite confident that if the peach- 

 trees, in the gardens round the metropolis had been pruned in the manner above described, in the last 

 season, an abundant and vigorous blossom would have appeared in the present spring. I do not, however, 

 mean to recommend to the gardener to trust wholly, in any situation, for his crop of fruit to the spurs 

 produced by the above-mentioned mode of pruning and training the peach-tree. In every warm and fa- 

 vorable situation, I would advise him to train the larger part of his young wood, according to the ordinary 

 method, and in cold and late situations only, to adopt, to a great extent, the mode of management above 

 suggested. A mixture of both modes, in every situation, will be generally found to multiply the chances 

 of success ; and, therefore, neither ought to be exclusively adopted, or wholly rejected in any situation. 

 The spurs must not be shortened in the whiter or spring, till it can be ascertained what parts of them 

 are provided with leaf-buds." 



4502. Harrison, in a very elevated and cold situation, prunes and nails his peach and nectarine trees 

 in December and January, taking away two thirds of the young shoots ; and in two hand-dressings in 

 May and July, he leaves the lowest and weakest shoots for a succession in the year following, pinching 

 off the leading and other shoots. J. S. Wortley, Esq. (Harrison's employer) says, " he can hardly do 

 his gardener justice in describing his practice ; for he never saw trees so beautifully trained, and upon 

 such good principles. The chief rule which he follows, is never to allow the shoots that are left for 

 bearing fruit, to run to any length from the strong wood ; for which reason, when the trees are pruned in 

 autumn the bearing branches for the next year are shortened, taking care not to leave more fruiting -buds 

 than he thinks will come to perfection." {Hurt. Trans, vol. ii. p. 14. ; Harrison's Tr. on Fr. Trees, ch. xxv.) 



4503. Training. The peach is almost uni- 

 versally trained in the fan manner, though some 

 allege that it bears better in rich soils when lead- 

 ing branches are trained nearly horizontally, and 

 the bearing shoots trained upwards from those, 

 thus combining horizontal and upright training. 

 Hayward suggests the wavy-fan manner (Jig. 

 490. ), as likely to answer better than the common 

 mode of fan-training. 



4504. Mozard's mode of training peach-trees is as fol- 

 lows : in the course of the winter he cuts over the young 

 tree above the graft, leaving four or five buds to produce 

 as many branches. In July following, he cuts out, close 



