190 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



to see wMcli will grow best, and stop the other or others. 

 We do not like shortening branches at all ; the bearing-wood 

 on standards is always at the ends of the branches, and in 

 wall-trees there is much the same tendency, although from 

 the very trunk itseK being exposed to the" light, bearing-wood 

 may be encouraged pretty nearly all over the surface. 



By attending to these few general principles, which are 

 exceedingly simple, the amateur may secure a pretty good 

 supply of peaches, nectarines, and apricots, —that is to say, 

 by allowing the buds to grow where you require wood to fill 

 the wall, and by rubbing them all off where the wall is 

 already full. Pruning is then only required to repair over- 

 sight, and occasionally to cut out old wood where young 

 bearing-wood can be made to fill its place ; in short, the 

 actual cutting away is the exception instead of the rule. In 

 very rich borders, where the growth of the trees is unna- 

 turally strong, the gardener is obliged to let all the young 

 wood grow, and then at the winter pruning make choice of 

 the best wood, and slaughter the rest ; but we prefer from 

 the beginning growing them in ordinary loam, which induces 

 a sound healthy growth, of sufficient strength to produce a 

 good crop of fruit, which may be thinned to the number 

 that the tree should bear. If we have a maiden-tree newly 

 planted, we may cut it back to three eyes, and while the 

 three branches are growing, it is likely that the two lower 

 ones will be unequal; in this case fasten the one which is grow- 

 ing strongest horizontally as it goes on, and let the other be 

 fastened nearly upright, because it will grow much stronger, 

 and before the season is out overtake the other, for the hori- 

 zontal position certainly checks the growth, while the vertical, 

 or anything approaching the perpendicular, encourages it. 

 At the end of the summer, when they have done growing, 

 both may be trained horizontally, or, if they start far from the 

 ground, they may be bent down lower at the ends than they 

 commence growing from. The centre branch may then be 

 bent doT\Ti to make a second shoot or branch on one side, 

 and have all the buds but the end one and the one nearest 

 the base rubbed off ; this bud nearest the base T\dll grow as 

 strong as the one laid horizontal, and be fit to form its match 

 on the other side. This branch may be served the same as 

 the other, aU the buds be rubbed off but the end one, and 

 the one nearest its base, so that alternately the branches wiU 



