286 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



in fruitj (I suppose before the fruit was ripe) which grew antf 

 made vigorous trees, while the old tree, after ripening its fruit, 

 showed the yellows. This would appear to bear out the opinion 

 that the disease is caused at the time of ripening its fruit more ' 

 than at the period of the tree being in blossom, for it is well knowju 

 that buds taken from trees having the yellows, if inserted in stocks 

 ever so healthy, the disease will manifest itself in the tree pro- 

 duced by the bud, for in the vegetable as well as the animal king- 

 dom there is a limit set, beyond which disease, when neglected, 

 becomes incurable, and when such stock is propagated from, no 

 matter whether from seed, buds, or any other way, the parent will 

 entail on its oTspring its constitutional infirmities. 



I promised to say a word on the subject of pruning, in conclu- 

 sion. The length of this communication already, will necessarily 

 compel me to be more brief than the subject demands. On^ trees 

 which bear on the last year's wood, like the peach, there is a ne- 

 cessity for annually shortening the branches, in order to provide 

 a supply of new shoots for bearing the next season. The proper 

 time for this operation depends a great deal upon the season, but 

 as a general rule, about the middle or end of March is soon enough^ 

 and in late seasons, the beginning of April, or any time before the 

 blossom expands, and trees of very vigorous growth may even be 

 pruned in full blossom, as to cut the wood late in the spring is 

 one of the remedies for excessive luxuriance. Weak trees should 

 be cut as soon as the buds show the first symptoms of swelling m 

 the spring. 



In pruning the peach tree, the first thing to be attended to, is 

 to cut out all weak and superfluous branches, such as are inclined 

 to cross each other, and those that are wiry and sapless, and in old 

 trees, thinning out decayed branches, and worn out bearers, and 

 retain all the best shoots, selecting those that are short-jointed and 

 most fertile, rejecting alike the over luxuriant, with the w^eak and 

 sapless. Those retained, should stand at such distances as to allow 

 the foliage and young shoots plenty of room to grow without 

 crowding each other, then shorten those branches from half to a 

 fourth, according to their strength, always bearing in mind to 

 prune the luxuriant branches or trees least, and the weaker ones 

 most. Were the strong tree much cut, it would produce shoots 

 so disproportionately large, as are alike bad for wood and fruit, 



