AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HORTICULTURE. 



423 



Nectarine confirmed. 



possibly succeed in this latter. Good drainage is all- 

 important ; it must be provided artificially, if the sub- 

 soil will not conduct water away readily. When neces- 

 sary, this can best be accomplished by placing a drain, 

 with a proper outlet, parallel with the wall, and near 

 the outside edge of the border. It should be deep 

 enough to take all superfluous water say, 3ft. from the 

 surface otherwise, the trees will not thrive. About 3ft. 

 depth of soil, of a fairly good description, should be 

 provided, and it is advisable that the border should 

 incline from the wall, thus allowing the part where 

 the trees are planted to be the highest and, conse- 

 quently, most efficiently drained. Old borders are not 

 suitable for planting Nectarine or Peach-trees in with- 

 out the addition of some new soil around the roots. 

 Where other conditions are favourable, sufficient might 

 be placed round each tree to give it a good start, and 

 more could be added afterwards, if it were required. A 

 compost of loam and manure, mixed with the natural 

 soil of the border, will always greatly improve it, and 

 do more good to fruit-trees than manure alone. Charred 

 rubbish, old crushed mortar and brick, or burnt clay, 

 should be freely intermixed where soils are inclined to be 

 adhesive; but they are much better not to be of this 

 description, if it can be avoided. The chief points re- 

 quisite under this heading are, therefore: a favourable 

 position against a south wall for planting ; a good depth 

 of soil; and efficient drainage, secured either by natural 

 or by artificial means. Without these provisions. Necta- 

 rines and Peaches will rarely succeed satisfactorily. 



Planting and After-treatment. The autumn is, un- 

 doubtedly, the best season for planting, as, in spring, root- 

 action and vegetation take place early in the trees, and 

 they cannot be removed at that season without receiving 

 more or less check. As early as convenient, after 

 the leaves drop, is, perhaps, the most desirable time 

 for planting. All the roots should be carefully laid out 

 at full length in a hole of sufficient size for their 

 reception, and, after a little fine soil has been shaken 

 amongst them, the remaining space should be filled 

 with a prepared compost, as already recommended. 

 About Gin. of space should be allowed between the wall 

 and the tree, and the roots should not be placed at a 

 greater depth than that to which they have previously 

 been subjected. It is advisable to cover the surface 

 with stable litter, so far as the roots extend, and not to 

 secure the branches, except very loosely, until all the 

 new soil has properly subsided. More than ordinary 

 attention will be necessary in watering, mulching, &c., 

 for the first season, or, at least, until the effects of 

 transplanting are over, and the ordinary growth is re- 

 sumed. Passing on to trees that are established, and in 

 bearing condition, reference may be made to the pro- 

 tection which the blossoms require in spring. Gardeners 

 not unfrequently err in applying too thick a covering, or 

 in keeping it over the trees in mild weather, when it 

 would be better away. Cold storms and easterly winds 

 are most to be guarded against; frost oftentimes does 

 not cause so much injury, unless the flowers become 

 actually frozen, and bright sunshine appears on them 

 while in this state. Movable coping boards, about 18in. 

 wide, should be fixed on brackets near the top of the wall 

 during the time the trees are flowering, and removed 

 about the end of May. From the edge of these boards, 

 ordinary nets of double or treble thicknesses, frigi-domo, 

 tiffany, or whatever may be at command, may hang down. 

 If any substance is used which excludes light, it will be 

 necessary to remove it on all favourable occasions. In 

 May, or about the beginning of June, syringing may be 

 practised daily, preferably with the garden engine. It 

 will, at times, be necessary to thin the fruits ; but, as a 

 rule, the crops of Nectarines and Peaches which set on 

 trees outside are not much greater than what healthy 



Nectarine continued. 



trees should be expected to ripen. Caution must, at any 

 rate, be exercised in thinning only those parts where the 

 fruits are unduly thick, or where they are unevenly dis- 

 tributed over the surface of the tree. Untoward circum- 

 stances may cause a large number of fruits to drop off 

 before the stoning period is past; in fact, a greater or 

 less proportion invariably do so, on trees both indoors 

 and out. Fan-trained Peach and Nectarine-trees that 

 are intended to be permanent should be planted at from 

 16ft. to 20ft. apart. If a standard and a dwarf are 

 planted alternately, they may be closer to each other 

 than the distance named ; or others may be put in between 

 temporarily, with a view to removing them afterwards. 



Pruning and Training. Pruning Peach and Nectarine- 

 trees is work which requires frequent attention ; not only 

 in winter, when the leaves are off, but also throughout 

 the summer. It should be practised only by persor.s wfro 

 understand the habit of the tree on which they are to 

 operate, and, above all, its mode of bearing. The fruits 

 each season are borne principally on wood made the 

 previous year; they are also sometimes produced from 

 short side shoots or spurs, which are, as a rule, well 



Fro. 656. NECTARINE AND PEACH. Ripened Spur Branch, 

 showing (a, a) Wood-buds and (6, b, b) Blossom-buds. 



furnished with blossom-buds (see Fig. 656). The chief 

 aim in pruning should be, therefore, to annually intro- 

 duce as much young wood as space will admit, without 

 any part being unduly crowded, or detriment caused 

 to the crop of the current year, and, in the winter 

 pruning, to cut the old fruit-bearing wood away, and 

 allow the new wood to take its place. Medium- sized, 

 short-jointed wood is always most satisfactory; and this 

 can only be obtained by allowing sufficient space for the 

 development of the young shoots under a full exposure to 

 sun and light. Buds are formed at each node as growth 

 proceeds, either singly or in twos or threes (see Fig. 

 657). They are very differently constituted, and are 

 termed respectively wood-buds and fruit or blossom- 

 buds. The former are thinner and more elongated 

 than the latter, and contain a growing point, sur- 

 rounded with leaves in a rudimentary state. Fruit- 

 buds contain rudimentary blossoms only, and, in pruning, 

 no shoot should be cut back to a node where these 

 only are present, as it would eventually die back to 

 a wood-bud, whence a new shoot might proceed. 

 Young trees are, as rule, naturally inclined to the pro- 

 duction of a preponderance of wood-buds ; while, in 

 older-established specimens, fruit-buds usually predomi- 

 nate. In the training of Nectarine and Peach-trees on 

 the fan system, it is important that the head should be 

 evenly balanced by the branches on either side of the 

 centre stem from the very earliest stages ; otherwise, the 

 tree will always be irregular, the stronger branches 

 will rob the weaker ones, and the upper part, whence 

 the sap most readily flows, will soon succeed in render- 

 ing the lower branches weak and unsatisfactory for 

 fruit-bearing. A maiden tree consists of a single shoot, 



