2 THE BOOK OF THE PEACH. 



seeing that suitable aspects are available for the 

 growth of the trees and ripening of the fruit 

 in every walled-in garden in every county and 

 village in the United Kingdom, and that the culture 

 and special requirements of the trees during the 

 whole period of growth are easy and simple when 

 properly understood by the cultivator; and it is 

 with a view to impart a practical knowledge in this 

 direction to those not already acquainted with the 

 subject that this small work has been written. State- 

 ments have occasionally appeared in the horticul- 

 tural press to the effect that the present generation 

 of gardeners do not understand the culture of the 

 peach as well as their forefathers did. Others 

 attribute the cause of the peach and nectarine not 

 being grow r n so extensively as the merits of the 

 fruits entitle them to be to the fact the asswrn^d 

 fact that this fickle climate of ours is not so 

 favourable for the successful cultivation of the 

 peach in the twentieth century as it was some 

 fifty or sixty years ago. However, I look upon 

 these assumed causes or apologies for peach trees 

 being conspicuous by their absence in so many 

 walled-in gardens in this country as being more 

 imaginary than real, no reason whatever existing 

 to prevent good crops of peaches, large in size and 

 fine in quality, being obtained in every walled-in 

 garden in these islands, in which a south, west, or 



