THOMSON ON THE PEACH 367 



pinching of the first season's growth have been properly 

 attended to, the tree will be so thoroughly furnished with 

 young wood that all the pruning that should be done is 

 simply to remove any shoots that would crowd the tree. 

 The distance between the shoots should not be less than 

 three or four inches. In February, 1878, I planted a num- 

 ber of young peaches and nectarines in an orchard -house. 

 In the autumn not a single shoot was shortened-back, and 

 at the close of their second year's growth the trees thor- 

 oughly furnished, in many instances, spaces of eighteen 

 feet by thirteen feet, and a great many of them sixteen 

 feet by twelve feet, besides bearing a good crop the season 

 after being planted. There are some magnificent trees at 

 Brayton Hall, which Mr. Hammond, the able gardener 

 there, managed on the extension system, and consequently 

 filled their allotted spaces and bore grand crops in half the 

 time in which this could have been done by the old cutting- 

 back system. 



" After the trees have grown and covered the space al- 

 lotted to each, the system of pruning must be directed so 

 as to continually keep the whole tree regularly supplied 

 with young fruit-bearing wood. With a view to this, of 

 course, the yearly removal of old wood in winter, and the 

 laying in of a corresponding amount of young wood in 

 summer, must be carefully attended to. * * * * 



" Some make a practice of cutting back the young bear- 

 ing wood to two -thirds its length. I do not advocate this 

 indiscriminately. Where the shoots are long and not well- 

 ripened, and the buds consequently weak, they should be 

 shortened-back to where the wood is firm, and always to 

 a strong wood -bud. Peach trees in a healthy condition 

 have their buds in clusters of three a wood-bud in the 

 center, and a fruit-bud on each side of it; and to such a 

 cluster of buds they should always be cut when cut at all. 



"Well-established trees that have borne heavy crops 

 regularly, and especially those that have been forced early, 



