308 The Peach and Neftarine. 



RAISING PEACHES IN POTS. 



Peaches are raised in pots to secure uniform crops every year in 

 an uncertain climate, to test new sorts, to produce early bearing, 

 and to obtain a supply of peaches where the grounds are too small 

 for planting an orchard. Two modes are adopted one without fire- 

 heat, the crop maturing a little earlier than in common orchards ; 

 the other, where, by the use of fire-heat, the fruit is obtained two or 

 three months earlier than in open ground. 



Among those who have most successfully adopted the first-named 

 mode, are Ellwanger and Barry, of Rochester. P. Barry has fur- 

 nished the following statement of their management, written when 

 the trees were three years of age and in successful bearing. 



" We have now fruiting, in wooden boxes, ten by ten inches, fifty- 

 three varieties of peaches, eleven varieties of nectarines, and seven 

 of apricots. 



" Age, Potting, and Soil. The trees are now three years from the 

 bud. They were taken up in the fall of 1861 ; heeled-in and covered 

 during winter ; potted early in spring March, I think ; soil a mix- 

 ture of about three parts yellow sandy loam, and one part of old hot- 

 bed manure. 



" Summer Care. After potting they were kept in a cool house, 

 partly covered with glass, until they had made shoots four or five 

 inches long, and the danger of cold weather over. They were then 

 plunged to the rim of the boxes in an open border until the fall. 

 They were carefully watered when necessary during summer, and 

 the shoots kept as much as possible in uniform vigor, by pinching. 



" Pruning. When potted, the yearling trees were cut back to six 

 or eight inches, and in some cases to four inches, or only two or 

 three buds above the union of bud and stock, the object being t 

 grow them in the form of bushes. We now find that those cut back 

 farthest are the best trees. [Fig. 350 represents the yearling tree ; 

 Fig. 351, the same, cut back; Fig. 352, the tree set in a pot; and 

 Fig. 353, the same, after a year's growth.] 



" Wintering. On the approach of very cold weather, or just before 

 the freezing of the ground so as to prevent out-door work, they were 

 removed to a shed, where they were plunged, as they had been 

 during summer, up to the edges of the tubs. 



''Spring Treatment. On the return of mild spring weather, 

 abundance of air was admitted, and they remained there till ist 

 May, when they were placed under glass, the buds at this time 



