PEACH AND NECTARINE. 105 



and then briefly the French, and other new modes of train- 

 ing. 



The old fan form is very nearly that already given 

 (supra) as a specimen of fan-training for twiggy trees. The 

 yonng tree is often procured when it has been trained for 

 two or three years in the nursery, but it is generally better 

 to commence with a maiden plant, that is, in the first year 

 after it has been budded. It is then headed down to five 

 or six buds, and in the following summer two to four shoots, 

 according to the vigor of the plant, are trained in ; the 

 laterals also being thinned out, and properly nailed to the 

 walls. Suppose there be four branches ; in the subsequent 

 winter the two central ones are shortened back to produce 

 others, and the inferior ones are laid in nearly at full 

 length. In the following season additional shoots are sent 

 forth ; and the process is repeated till eight or ten princi- 

 pal limbs or mother branches be obtained, forming, as it 

 were, the framework of the future tree. These mother 

 branches are occasionally raised or depressed, so as to 

 maintain their equilibrium, and are as much encouraged to 

 grow outwards as is consistent with the regular filling up 

 of the tree. The laterals are carefully thinned out (by 

 pinching off with the fingers) in summer ; and the remainder 

 are nailed in, to afford subordinate members and bearing 

 wood. When the centre of the tree has been filled up, all 

 the training necessary is merely to prevent the inferior 

 members from acquiring an undue ascendency over the 

 mother branches. It is highly advantageous to have abun- 

 dant space, and to draw the tree outwards, so that it be 

 thin, but nowhere destitute of young shoots. 



Meanwhile the pruning for fruit has been going on. This 

 consists in shortening down the laterals which had been 

 nailed in at the disbudding, or summer pruning. Their 



