OF FRUIT TREES. 203 



" The practice of Mr. Coulter, in cutting down 

 the trees, is highly rational : they are thus forced 

 to spend their vigour upon their bodies and roots, 

 instead of shooting up into the air with thin barks, 

 which are easily penetrated by the fly. 



" The best kind of peaches is said to be produced 

 from inoculation ; and upon an apricot stock, as they 

 are not liable to be injured by the fly; and that 

 peach trees thus produced, grow larger and rise 

 higher than when on the peach stock. Grafting 

 the peach upon a plum stock has also been practis- 

 ed, with a view of resisting the attack of the fly ; 

 but this operation must be performed under ground, 

 otherwise an unsightly knob will be the conse- 

 quence of the peach tree overgrowing the plum 

 stock, and endanger the breaking off of the tree at 

 the place of junction. 



" The directions given by Forsyth, with respect 

 to wall peach trees, may be applied to our standard 

 trees, viz. to pinch off all the strong shoots in June, 

 the first year the tree bears ; which will make them 

 throw out side shoots : these, if not laid too thick, 

 will make fine bearing wood for the succeeding year. 

 If the strong shoots be suffered to grow to their 

 full length, they will be large and spongy, and will 

 neither produce good fruit nor good wood for the 

 following year. Sometimes weakly trees are cover- 

 ed with blossoms ; but if too much fruit be suffered 

 to remain on them, they will be weakened so much 

 that they will never recover. In that case, I would 

 recommend picking off the greater part of the fruit, 

 to let the tree recover its strength. When trees 

 in this state are pruned, never prune at a single 

 flower-bud ; as the shoot will be either entirely 

 killed, or, at least, die as far as the next wood-bud. 



"I have often topped the strong shoots twice in 

 the course of the summer, before they produced 

 the fine kind-bearing wood. These strong shoots 

 exhaust the tree, and never produce good wood, 



