JUNE] THE ORCHARD. 435 



with the others, and there should be no main branch directed to that 

 particular part. It will, however, be two or three years before the 

 full effect will be produced." 



The management of the laterals must be varied according to the 

 nature of the soil, and the greater or less humidity of the climate. 

 If the soil is rich and moist, strong shoots, too strong for any but 

 wood buds being formed on them, will be produced. Instead of the 

 fruitful laterals produced on the Kentish soil, rod-like walking canes 

 will be produced when the plants are grown in many other parts of 

 the kingdom. They must be cut back, otherwise they would form 

 strong cross branches ; but then we must consider that each of these 

 rods, with their ample foliage, has contributed to the formation of 

 roots during the summer ; that these roots will be adequate to supply 

 nourishment in the following season to all the shoots made in the 

 present season; but when the shoots are necessarily reduced, say 

 more than one-half, either by shortening or cutting out entirely, then 

 the remaining portion has more than double the quantity of roots 

 necessary for its nourishment ; and it will, in consequence, be stimu- 

 lated to grow with excessive luxuriance. 



THE PEACH. The mode of bearing is as follows : A, Fig. 49, re- 

 presents the branch of a peach-tree. The figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, denote 

 the respective ages of the portions of branch opposite. The asterisks 

 at the sides of the shoots, indicate the place to which these may be 

 shortened at the winter pruning. B, is a portion of a bearing shoot 

 furnished with both wood and blossom buds ; a, a, a, a, are blossom 

 bubs ; b, b, I, b, wood buds. 



Peach and nectarine-trees bear their fruit exclusively on wood of 

 the preceding summer's growth. For example, if one pull a peach 

 in the summer of 1857, it must be from wood formed in the summer 

 of 1856, and which had no existence, as a shoot, in 1855, although 

 then its origin might have been traced to a vital point within a bud. 

 Such an almost invisible point was the shoot B, in 1855. In sum- 

 mer, 1856, this point, developed from a bud, grew a shoot, furnished 

 with leaves disposed singly, in twos or in threes, along the growing 

 shoot. In the axil of each of these leaves, the rudiments of a bud 

 were formed. The leaves, having accomplished their office, dropped 

 in autumn, whilst the energy of the young buds continued to increase. 

 Their winter appearance is represented in B. The blossom buds are 

 distinguished by their plumpness; they have an ovate form, which 

 gradually becomes globose ; they have a hoary appearance, owing to 

 the scales opening and exposing their downy integuments. The wood 

 buds are slender and conical. Their scaly covering is less deranged 

 by expansion of their interior parts in early spring, and consequently 

 they exhibit less of that hoary pubescence by which the others are 

 distinguished. In the case of triple buds the middle one is generally 

 a wood bud. 



The peach differs materially from the pear and apple-trees. In 

 these a shoot may be shortened to any bud, and the one immediately 

 below the cut will almost invariably produce a shoot ; but the peach 

 shoot must be cut to where there is a wood bud; for if cut to a blos- 

 som bud only, no shoot can result. Sometimes all the buds on a 



