CHAP, vn.] PEACHES AXD NECTARINES. 1 75 



much better than a gardener, as it is an opera- 

 tion that depends principally on delicacy of 

 touch. When a peach tree is trained in the 

 fan manner, the first year the little side shoots 

 are left for producing the fruit, and none of 

 these should be more than a year old. The 

 next year these shoots must be cut out (as the 

 same shoot never bears two years in succes- 

 sion), and others, which have been produced 

 while they were bearing, must be trained in 

 their stead. The borders should never be 

 cropped, on account of disturbing the roots, 

 and only raked or slightly forked over occa- 

 sionally, to prevent the surface from cakincr 

 over, and becoming impervious to air and 

 moisture. No recent stable duns; should ever 

 be given to peaches : and, when the trees seem 

 exhausted, they should be taken up and re- 

 planted in fresh soil ; or they should be 

 removed, and trees of quite a different kind, 

 such as pears for example, planted instead of 

 them in the same soil. When the borders 

 cannot be spared to be left entirely bare, a 

 light crop, such as of spinach, lettuces, mustard 

 and cress, or parsley, may be sown on them, 

 and the remains of this crop, when done with, 

 should be raked off: but fruit borders ought 

 never on any account to be touched with a 

 spade, and even a fork should be used but 

 seldom and sparingly; never, indeed, unless 

 the ground has become too hard and compact 

 to admit the rain, the sun, and the air. It 

 must never be forgotten, that, unless the spon- 

 gioles of the roots are permitted to imbibe, 

 with the moisture they take up, the carbonic 



