PEACHES* 03 



grow up to bearing trees on account of the roots be- 

 ing strong. Let no kind of beasts into peach or- 

 chards, hogs excepted,foY fear of wounding the trees ; 

 as the least wound will greatly injure the tree, by 

 draining a\\ay that substance which is the life there- 

 of ; although the tree may live many years, the pro- 

 duce is not so great, neither is the fruit so good. Af- 

 ter the old stock is cut away, the third year after 

 transplanting, the sprouts or scions will grow up all 

 round the old stump, from four to six in number : no 

 more will come to maturity than the old stump can 

 support and nourish ; the remainder will die before 

 ever they bear fruit. These may be cut awaj^, tak- 

 ing care not to wound any part of any stock, or the 

 bark. The sprouts growing all round the old stump, 

 when loaded with fruit, will bend, and rest on the 

 ground in every direction, without injuring any of 

 them, for many years, all of them being rooted in the 

 ground as though they had been planted. The stocks 

 will remain tough, and the bark smooth, for twenty 

 years and upwards ; if any of the sprouts or trees from 

 the old stump should happen to split off or die, cut 

 them away ; they will be supplied from the ground by 

 young trees, so that you will have trees from the same 

 stump for one hundred years, as I believe. I now 

 have trees thirty-six, twenty, ten, five, and down to 

 one year old, all from the same stump. The young 

 trees coming up, after any of the old trees split off or 

 die, and are cut away, will bear fruit the second year : 

 but this fruit will not ripen so easily as the fruit on 

 the old trees from the same stem. Three years after 

 the trees are cut off by the ground, they will be suf- 

 ficiently large and bushy to shade the ground, so a& 

 to prevent grass of any kind from matting or binding 

 the surface, so as to injure the trees 5 therefore, 

 ploughing is useless, as well as injurious ; useless, be- 

 cause nothing can be raised in the orchard, by rea- 



