THE PEACH AND TH* NECTARINE ] 323 



increase of vigour and productiveness, as well as in an 

 improvement of the size and quality of the fruit. 



The soil of the peach orchard should be weeded and 

 tilled at least three times during the year, as suggested 

 for the pear tree. It is possible also to grow catch crops 

 of vegetables in winter or early spring, as in the case of 

 orchards of other deciduous fruit trees, but the shade 

 thrown by the thick foliage of the peach and nectarine is 

 an obstacle to the growth of vegetables and other irrigated 

 crops in summer. Indeed the cultivation of crops requiring 

 frequent and abundant irrigation is, as already stated, a 

 real danger to the peach tree and to all other stone fruits, 

 as the permanent moist condition of the soil and subsoil 

 provokes attacks of chlorosis, gumming and root-rot, 

 from which the trees never fully recover, and their term 

 of life is considerably shortened. 



In these Islands the peach tree is not trained to any 

 particular shape, but is always allowed to assume its 

 natural dome-shaped or spreading form, and this is the 

 shape best suited to the tree in our subtropical climate. 

 However the practice of growing -the peach as a bush is 

 not the best to follow, as the central upright branches 

 soon appropriate the vigour of the tree, develop a 

 wasteful luxuriance of foliage and twigs and become 

 comparatively unproductive. It is therefore better to 

 train the tree roughly to a vase-shape from the first year 

 after grafting, and this is easily done by reserving three 

 to six branches situated at approximately the same level, 

 and training them at equal distances apart, leaving a clear 

 space in the middle. In the second year the vase-shape 

 will be fully established, and a little trimming every 

 winter is all that is necessary to keep the tree well in 

 shape. The vase shape may be started at ground level 

 from one of the scions or from both, if both are successful, 

 but the best results are obtained from young trees budded 

 or grafted as standards at 50 c.m. to i metre above the 

 ground, as in that case the natural tendency of the peach 



