PEACH CULTURE. 



twice in our own experience. The first case was that of 

 a beautiful young Bellflower apple tree, the one-half of 

 which broke down under an enormous load of fruit the 

 third year after coming in. It grew near a high board 

 fence, and so equally was it divided into two branches, 

 that had it not been for the fence, we believe both would 

 have parted, and fallen in opposite directions. As it 

 was, only one could fall, but in doing so, it split the stem 

 down to within less than two feet of the ground. So great 

 was the injury that we seriously thought of digging it up 

 altogether, and planting another in its stead ; but we did 

 not. Although broken down, it did not separate from 

 the main stem, and the fruit matured well. When it war) 

 gathered, we removed the fallen branch neatly ; cut away 

 a few of the lower limbs on the opposite side, shortened-in 

 a few others, and awaited the result. The next spring, 

 young branches began to shoot on the injured side ; they 

 grew very rapidly, filled up the vacancy, new wood cov- 

 ered the wound, so that at the end of two years, no one, 

 unaware of the accident, would have suspected that the 

 now beautiful tree had ever sustained injury. 



The other, was that of some natural peach trees in full 

 bearing that we wished to transform into choice varieties 

 of budded fruit. For this purpose we cut off the entire 

 tops just above the spread, and budded on the young 

 wood the next fall. Two years after, the tops were as 

 large, and much handsomer than when removed. 



The planter must not conclude that because his tree is 

 broken down it is, therefore, destroyed. By proper atten- 

 tion it may soon be restored ; and when we reflect that 

 two large crops scarcely ever follow each other in succes- 

 sion, we will see that the loss is really but trivial. 



As soon as the pruning is over, the trash is cleanly 

 gathered up and hauled away to some vacant spot to be 

 burned. 



After this the root of every tree is carefully examined 



