176 THE MANAGEMENT OE [CHAP. vn. 



acid gas always floating in the atmosphere, the 

 sap of the tree will never be rich enough to 

 produce fruit. The fruit and seeds of every 

 plant are, in fact, concentrations of carbon, 

 precipitated by the action of light ; and where 

 any plant is deficient in carbon, or deprived of 

 light, it cannot produce much fruit. The cul- 

 ture of the nectarine is exactly the same as 

 that of the peach. In both, when the season 

 is cold and wet, with but little sun, some culti- 

 vators remove a few of the leaves to admit 

 more air and light to the fruit ; but this should 

 be done very sparingly, as, unless a sufficient 

 quantity of leaves be left to carry on the proper 

 circulation of the sap, the skin of the fruit will 

 become touofi and withered, and the flesh 

 insipid. When the fruit is ripe, it is customary, 

 in large gardens, to suspend a net under the 

 branches to catch any fruit that may fall, and 

 thus to save it from being bruised. The peach 

 is supposed to be a native of Persia, and to 

 have been introduced into England about the 

 middle of the sixteenth century. Peaches and 

 nectarines, on a wall ten or twelve feet high, 

 should be planted about twenty feet apart, with 

 riders of some kind of plum or cherry, till the 

 permanent trees spread. 



The Apricot is a native of Armenia, and was 

 introduced about 1562. The culture is the 

 same as that of the peach, except that it is not 

 trained quite so much in the fan manner, but 

 somewhat horizontally. It also bears, not only 

 on the side-shoots of the last year, but on close 

 spurs formed on the two-years-old wood. The 

 whole of the fruit is also generally suffered to 



