THE PEA Off A ND NECTA RINE. 579 



having been laid in at a less angle than the others, which deprives them 

 of their due proportion of sap. By turning up the extremities of the 

 branches, so as to give all an equal inclination and equal curvature, 

 all parts of the tree may be maintained in equal vigour. By the 

 adoption of this very simple and natural system of training, Mr. 

 Glendinning, who adopted it extensively at Bicton in 1832, observes, 

 various inexplicable failures will be avoided ; such as premature 

 decay, an unequal quantity of young wood in the centre of the tree, 

 and the constant and grievous calamity of losing the entire under 

 limbs, which completely disfigures the tree for ever. Hayward's mode 

 of training is founded on the same principle viz., that the sap will 

 always flow in the greatest quantity to the most vertical buds. 



Shortening the Young Wood of the Peach. This is practised in all 

 the different modes of training that are or ever have been used in 

 Britain. The effect of shortening the shoots of the peach is not merely 

 to throw more sap into the fruit, but to add vigour to the tree gene- 

 rally, by increasing the power of the roots relatively to the branches. 

 The peach being a short-lived tree, were it allowed to expend all the 

 power of its accumulated sap every year, it would soon exhaust itself, 

 and die of old age ; as the standard peach-trees do in a few years in 

 the unpruned American orchards, and in those of Italy, and as the 

 almond does in the neighbourhood of Lyons and Vienna. No tree is 

 so apt as the peach to produce over-luxuriant shoots, technically 

 water-shoots, or gourmands. These may always be known by the 

 extraordinary vigour of their commencement, which is almost always 

 from latent buds after the regular buds of the tree have been developed. 

 These buds ought to be rubbed off immediately, and as fast as they 

 appear, in order to throw the sap which would have been wasted by 

 them into the other parts of the tree ; or if the entire tree is too strong, 

 the shoots may be left to grow, care being taken to disleaf them as 

 fast as they advance, in order that no new sap may be generated. 

 Besides these over-luxuriant shoots, others will arise not suitably 

 situated ; as when they come on the main stem, or on the fronts of the 

 branches, technically fore-right shoots ; all of which ought to be rubbed 

 off, retaining only such as are required to bear fruit the following 

 year, or may be wanted to supply the place of a branch which has 

 been or is to be cut out ; or to cover the upper portion of walls that 

 are not yet furnished. What is called the summer pruning of peach- 

 trees, commences as early in spring as the leaf- buds can be distin- 

 guished from the blossom-buds, when all that are not wanted of either 

 should be rubbed off ; and it continues till the fall of the leaf, imme- 

 diately after which the winter pruning may be performed, but should 

 not be deferred later than February. In winter pruning the rule, as 

 in all similar cases, is to cut to a leaf-bud, and as this sometimes is 

 situated between twin blossom-buds, care must be taken not to injure 

 the latter, as it is in such situations that the fruit is produced with 

 least expense of sap to the tree ; the branch attracting sap to the fruit 

 from the root, and also returning sap to it from the leaves. 



In summer pruning the peach in cold, late situations, it is found 



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