Stone Fruits: Peaches and Nectarines 135 



with the soil in Peach borders; and when the young trees are well estab- 

 lished a dressing of bone meal every second or third year, or basic slag 

 about December or January, will be beneficial. Humus must be added 

 by a topdressing in winter, with well-rotted manure, but to guard against 

 acidity this should be followed in spring with a sprinkling of lime or 

 basic slag. 



To keep the shoots at a pi-oper distance from the glass, a wire trellis 

 with strands running horizontally and vertically, as shown in the Plate, 

 will be necessary. These wires should be fairly stout and well strained 

 to secure rigidity. The best distance from the glass is 12 to 15 in. 

 This secures not only a free passage of air between the leaves and the 

 glass, but also prevents scorching. The grower also can push his head 

 through in places to see that the fruits are properly exposed to the 

 ripening influence of the sun. 



To secure an early crop of peaches, fire heat may be started early in 

 January. At first very little should be given until the plants are fairly 

 starting into growth, and a night temperature of 45 F. will be sufficient. 

 Later on the temperature may be gradually raised to 50 when the 

 plants are in flower, and then 55 after they have begun to set. The day 

 temperature will be from 5 degrees to 10 degrees higher. Care must be 

 taken not to have it too high, say above 65 F., until the young fruits 

 are well advanced. Attention, therefore, must be given to ventilation on 

 all favourable occasions, and the atmosphere must be kept in a fairly moist 

 condition by watering and syringing. Each afternoon the trees should be 

 well syringed to keep the leaves clean, to keep down red spider, and to 

 encourage rapid growth. 



During the season it will be necessary to tie in the best of the new 

 growths for next season's fruiting, and to pinch or cut out unnecessary 

 ones. The proper arrangement of the wires makes this a fairly simple 

 matter with a piece of twisted raffia. 



Thinning out the fruits is practised to secure a fair crop of good 

 size, and to prevent the trees exhausting themselves too much. 



Trees in small houses, planted 12 ft. apart, will ripen on an average 

 five dozen fine fruits. This gives roughly one fruit to every square foot 

 of the tree; and larger trees may have their fruits thinned out to the 

 same proportion to secure good crops. It is, however, recorded that 

 early Peach trees covering 300 sq. ft. of trellis have produced thirty-five 

 dozen fruit. By reckoning one peach or nectarine to every square foot 

 of glass one may estimate fairly accurately the crop of any particular 

 house, and the same may be said of Peaches grown in the open air. 

 First-class fruits will realize from 8s. to 20s. per dozen, while seconds 

 may secure anything from 2s. Qd. to 5s. per dozen. The grower, there- 

 fore, who takes care of his crop and aims at securing the finest fruits 

 is the one most likely to obtain the highest prices. In these days of 

 keen competition the best produce not only fetches higher prices, but 

 also sells much quicker than the lower-grade material. 



