FRUIT GARDEN. 255 



limbs, and an occasional supply of wood (if this be 

 wanted) to keep up a well-balanced head. It is also 

 that form in which the tree succeeds best in hot cli- 

 mates ; and in such it ought always to be employed. 

 But in northern latitudes (where the heat is neither 

 long-continued nor great), the fruit of the standard 

 peach-tree is rarely seen in perfection : it may be 

 large, and juicy, and well coloured, but it will always 

 be deficient in that peculiar flavour, that aroma which 

 is its true characteristic, and without which it is but 

 an ordinary fruit.* To supply, therefore, as far as 

 may be possible, without the aid of fire or glass, that 

 high temperature in which the peach delights, we 

 must resort, first, to the use of walls, which, be- 

 sides protecting the tree from high and cold winds, 

 concentrate the rays of the sun on its stem and 

 branches, and on the earth which surrounds and 

 nourishes its roots ; secondly, to the amelioration 

 of the soil, by giving to it both warmth and dry ness, 

 should it be deficient in these qualities ; and, thirdly, 

 to that mode of training " which exposes to the 

 light the greatest surface of leaf in the shortest 

 space of time,t and, consequently, best promotes an 

 equal distribution of the sap." For accomplishing 

 these three objects, the rules are to construct your 

 walls of stone, or brick, or wood, and of a height 

 from 12 to 15 feet ; to lay out, on the eastern and 

 southern sides of them, a border 10 feet wide, work- 

 ed to the depth of three feet, and manured with a 

 mixture of ashes and peat, or bog earth ;{ to plant 

 in this (2 1-2 feet distant from the wall) your young 

 trees, furnished with two leading branches, and pre- 

 senting a figure not unlike the letter Y ; to bring 

 down these branches to a position nearly horizon- 



* To show the effect of climate on this fruit, Bosc says that 

 he has eaten peaches at Verona, compared with which " the 

 celebrated Clingstone of Montreuil (the Pomponne) would be 

 regarded as an abortion." 



t Knight. f Loudon. 



