On the Management of Peach Trees. 173 



ished by solar influence, but not until it has reached a certain 

 stage of development ; the materials and means of production 

 must be inherent in the plant, which must bring the fruit for- 

 ward, until it is able to render the plant assistance by its own 

 powers of assimilation. Peach trees may contain abundance 

 of materials for producing shoots, and perfecting blossoms, 

 but, unless the elements for the production of fruit be also in 

 the tree, the blossom-buds will expand — the blossoms devel- 

 ope themselves, but they will prove abortive. 



Assuming, then, the correctness of this theoretical reason- 

 ing, which. I think, will be pretty generally admitted, we 

 have some clue to the means of eflecting a cure. To this 

 end, the gross feeding vertical roots must be cut away, and 

 small ones induced near the surface. A root medium must 

 be given them, from which nutrient, organizable matter can 

 be absorbed, and acted upon by atmospheric gases. The strong 

 roots should be cut as often as the tree shows signs of over- 

 luxuriance, and, when this is once done, a sufficiency of roots 

 will be produced near the surface to prevent the tree from being 

 injured by repeated operations. The perpendicular roots are 

 the worst, as it is by these that the tree is supplied with a su- 

 perabundance of watery matter. A good method to prevent 

 these in some degree, is by placing a slab of stone, or, what 

 is better perhaps, a piece of concrete, a few feet in diameter, 

 immediately under the tree. This not only prevents the tap- 

 roots from getting down, but makes the pruning of them af- 

 terwards more easily performed. In rich, deep soils, they 

 will require moving and replanting, every one or two years, 

 having all their strong roots cut within a few feet of the stem : 

 the trees will thus be kept in a healthy, fruit-bearing state. 

 Some years ago, I removed some peach trees which had 

 grown for six years in a state of barren luxuriance, worse 

 than any I have seen in this country. I took them up, and 

 moved them to another part of the garden. I cut every root 

 to within two feet of the stem — some of them, within that 

 distance, were three inches in diameter — planted them near 

 the surface in good loam, and the following year, (they were 

 disrooted in November,) they produced abundance of fruit, 

 which was nearly worthless ; (this was expected ;) they grew 

 very little — only a short spur-like elongation of the terminal 



