On the Management of Peach Trees. 207 



I am aware that a powerful plea will be brought against 

 this system, (allowing all prejudice to be overcome,) in the 

 amount of labor necessary to practise it on an extensive scale. 

 To such objections, I would say, give it a fair trial, before 

 you condemn it. That it fully answers the desired end is 

 unquestionable. That it may be profitably practised upon 

 the extensive orchards of this country, remains to be shown. 

 The system, however, is invaluable to amateurs, and others 

 having small gardens and orchards, as by it a variety of 

 peaches and pears, even the strongest growing sorts, may be 

 grown in a very small garden. A greater quantity of fruit 

 can be produced on a given space of ground, than by any 

 other method, and the trees require, otherwise, very little care. 

 The work requires to be performed at a period of the year, 

 when labor is most plentiful and cheap. And, more than all, 

 trees, so managed, can be removed, at almost any age, from 

 one place to another, without the slightest injury. 



If little attention be given to the roots of peach trees, there 

 appears to be still less given to the branches ; and, in many 

 cases, where an attempt at pruning is made, it is more injuri- 

 ous than otherwise. The tree should be so trained, in its 

 youth, that the amputation of large branches, in after years, 

 may be unnecessary. The peach is naturally a short-lived 

 tree, and every limb that is cut off after it is full grown, most 

 assuredly hastez^is its decay. These large amputations are sel- 

 dom healed over with healthy bark, and besides producing 

 canker. The exudations that frequently follow exhaust the 

 vital energies of the tree more than the heaviest crops. The 

 less cutting that the branches of a peach tree get, the better. 

 It is a well-known fact, that where peach trees have attained 

 to a great age, they have been but little pruned. It is always 

 better to draw out the fire, than to blow off steam, or, in other 

 words, it is better to curtail the supply, than to cut off the 

 branches. Indeed, if we study the philosophy and effects of 

 winter-pruning, and appreciate it according to its merits, it is 

 very probable we would discontinue its practice altogether. Is 

 it reasonable, or right, in principle, to make trees produce 

 three or four times the quantity of wood that is necessary, 

 and then to cut it off, under the fine-sounding professional 

 XQixaoi winter-pruning? The thing is utterly inconsistent 



