FRUIT-GARDENING. 139 



this way I account for Peaches being less plentiful than they 

 were when left almost to nature ; which was the case, I v am 

 informed, in the beginning of the present century. That this 

 malpractice in horticulture is general, the most superficial 

 observer may discover by comparing the thrifty growth of 

 those trees scattered by nature in our highways and byways 

 with many of those aided by the art of man. If any of my 

 readers should require proof of my assertions, I can show them 

 from the window of the room where this article is being writ- 

 ten, scores of living, or rather dying evidences of the evil of 

 deep planting. 



PRUNING . AND TRANSPLANTING. 



All the varieties of the Peach produce their fruit upon the 

 young wood of a year old, the blossom-buds rising immedi- 

 ately from the eyes of the shoots. The same shoots seldom 

 bear after the first year, except on some casual small spurs on 

 the two years' wood, which is not to be counted upon. Hence 

 the trees are to be pruned as bearing entirely on the shoots of 

 the preceding year, and a full supply of regular grown shoots 

 must be retained for successional bearers. Cut out the redun- 

 dant shoots, and all decayed and dead wood, and reduce some 

 of the firmer bearers, cutting the most naked quite away. 



A Peach Orchard may be planted at any time after the bud 

 is established, until the trees are three or four years old, 

 which may be placed from fifteen to twenty feet from each 

 other, or from any other spreading trees. The dwarf kinds 

 may be introduced into the kitchen-garden, and trained against 

 fences, as directed for the Apricot, or as espaliers or dwarf 

 standards. 



A judicious pruning of Peach, Nectarine, and other kinds 

 of young trees is necessary to prevent the long, straggling 

 growth of limbs which are frequently bare of shoots for some 

 distance from the body of the tree, which should be shortened, 

 to cause the production of lateral shoots. An annual sum- 



