CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



removed, causing a supply of that which is better 

 ripened for the ensuing year.' But in order to 

 facilitate the ripening of the wood, it must be 

 trained thin, retaining those shoots only that may 

 be required for the ensuing year. After two years' 

 growth in a good soil, we may reasonably expect 

 that six or eight permanent shoots, a yard or four 

 feet in length, will be formed and trained in, on 

 each hand, and that all these branches are fur- 

 nished with three or more secondaries, laid in at 

 nearly equal distances from one another, and 

 which, by the end of June, may be a foot or more 

 in length. The tree will continue to grow till the 

 end of August ; but disbudding must be effected 

 repeatedly, so as to leave it in the form and con- 

 dition just described. It has then become a 

 bearing-tree, which condition implies a series of 

 strong woody branches of two, three, or more 

 years old, that have produced other shoots in the 

 spring, which, when ripe, are of a deep reddish 

 brown tint on the sunny side. These latter are 

 the fruitful shoots, and they never bear twice ; but 

 if neglected, run on to an uncertain length, sending 

 forth other weak laterals, which might indeed bear 

 a little fruit, but such as could never compensate 

 for the ruin, or at least disfiguration of the tree. 

 It is a maxim among good pruners, that a peach- 

 tree should be green throughout or all over that 

 is, every space, even close to the main stem, has 

 one or more leafy and fertile shoots. This maxim 

 would be violated in two seasons, were all the 

 shoots permitted to extend themselves. 



The bearing-shoots, therefore, must be shortened 

 to twelve or fourteen inches, if strong ; and the 

 weaker to eight or ten inches, or even to half that 

 length, if very slender. The pruner should cut 

 sloping from behind. In furnishing a tree, it is 

 not needful to cut away the wood-shoots as use- 

 less ; because by pruning back to an eye seated 

 rather low on the shoot, two good fertile shoots 

 may be provided in lieu of a barren one. A single 

 sharp-pointed eye is the origin of a wood-shoot ; 

 the blossom-bud is more bulky and rounded ; but 

 by deferring the winter regulation till late in 

 February, the condition of the two will be no 

 longer doubtful. 



When it has once been so pruned, the leading 

 branch will break its extreme bud, which will thus 

 elongate that branch ; and the fruitful laterals will 

 also develop several minor shoots. It is from the 

 last that a selection must be made to effect two 

 objects of the greatest importance. The first is 

 to attract the sap along the entire shoot, in order 

 to nourish the young fruit upon it ; and this will 

 require that the shoot at the extreme point, or at 

 least one beyond the uppermost fruit, be permitted 

 to extend itself, and be nailed securely to the wall, 

 when it shall have acquired some strength and 

 toughness. The second object is, to provide a 

 shoot to succeed the one now bearing fruit ; and 

 in doing this, the lowest should be selected, 

 because it will, by its situation, replace the present 

 shoot in a manner most conformable with the 

 gardener's maxim before adduced, and tend to 

 keep the tree compact and fertile. A third shoot 

 ought also to be retained, to guard against emer- 

 gency or accident ; all the others should be re- 

 moved by disbudding early in May. In July also, 

 a general regulation must take place ; when, by 

 removing useless shoots, and nailing those retained, 

 the fruit will be duly exposed to the sun's rays. 



584 



Thus the growth of shoots and fruit proceeds ; 

 and if regularity and order be maintained, the tree 

 will, year after year, elongate, and add branch to 

 branch, retaining complete verdure throughout. 



In the thinning of the fruit of peaches and nec- 

 tarines, and indeed any other drupaceous fruit, it 

 is necessary to proceed with caution, as it is apt 

 to fall off after having attained a considerable size. 

 In order, therefore, to secure a crop, it will be the 

 best way to thin them at three separate times : 

 the first, as soon as the fruit is of the size of a 

 hazel-nut ; the second, when of the size of a small 

 walnut ; and the third, as soon as the stone has 

 become hardened ; after this, it rarely happens 

 that either peach or nectarine falls off before it is 

 matured. 



Peach-trees are liable to be molested by insects 

 and mildew; the former are usually species of 

 Aphis, commonly called green-fly. In some cases 

 the trees attacked suffer to an extraordinary 

 degree, insomuch that the crop dwindles and the 

 growth of the trees is checked three or four 

 distinct broods succeeding each other. Fumiga- 

 tion and washing with tobacco-water are the only 

 remedies; and dusting over the injured leaves 

 with sulphur destroys the mildew. 



With respect to soil and preparation of border, 

 what we have said respecting the apple applies 

 strictly to the peach. As wall-peaches must have 

 a border, we can devise no plan more effectual or 

 simple than that of clearing out a space of the 

 required length, of eight to twelve feet in breadth, 

 the depth of soil at the wall to be twenty inches, 

 sloping to fifteen inches making a fall of five 

 inches from back to front. The bottom of the 

 bed being properly prepared, the bed itself should 

 consist of the rich but not clayey loam and turf 

 of a common or pasture, having in it no manure 

 whatever. The trees may indeed be top-dressed 

 every winter with litter manure a yard or more 

 round the boles, and so deep as to protect their 

 roots from frost. It will also be a great preventive 

 of drought in summer ; and of this any one may 

 satisfy himself by raising the mulch in the veiy 

 driest weather, when the soil under it will be seen 

 black and moist, though in other parts it be 

 parched to aridity. The fruit is said to be one 

 month accelerated, and its value proportionably 

 enhanced, by growing a tree in a glass-covered pit 

 of twenty-four feet long, sixty inches deep at the 

 back wall, and thirty inches at the front. The lights 

 will thus obtain a sufficient slope, if their length be 

 seven feet. Hundreds of fine fruit can be pro- 

 duced in July or August by one tree ; but great 

 watchfulness will be required about the period of 

 blooming, to check the ravages of the aphides in 

 their earliest approaches ; by three days' neglect, 

 we have seen the destruction of a crop, and the 

 ruin of all the bearing-wood of the year, in despite 

 of every usual application. 



Selection of a few of the finest Peaches. 



*BeIlegarde, or Galande. 

 "Chancellor. 

 Late Admirable. 



'Noblesse. 

 Royal George. 

 Rosanna, or Yellow Alberge. 



Nectarines. 



*Elruge, or Claremont I "Violet Hative. 



Fan-child's Early. | Early Newington. 



The trees marked thus (*) are suitable to the Highlands of 

 Scotland. 



Some interesting details have been given by 

 Mr H. Bailey (Card. Chron. April 4, 1857) of the 



