148 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



the greater portion of that period has had the manage- 

 ment of the fruit-tree department ; and all who are 

 acquainted with the quality of his productions will 

 accept him as an authority of the highest order in the 

 propagation of peaches and nectarines. 



The stocks used for budding the peach and necta- 

 rine on are the Mussel plum, and the Brompton or 

 Mignonne plum. The stocks are raised by layering in 

 the ordinary way. In preparing them for budding, 

 they are dressed and cut to the height of about 2 feet, 

 and planted out in autumn or early winter in lines. 

 The following autumn they are taken up, assorted, 

 and again planted in lines, but wider apart than the 

 previous or first year. The succeeding summer, gen- 

 erally from the middle of July to the middle of Au- 

 gust, they are budded with the desired varieties of 

 peaches and nectarines. The following summer the 

 buds make their first growth, and the trees are termed 

 " dwarf maidens." In the autumn of the same year 

 they are taken up, root-pruned, and planted in lines 

 4 feet apart, and 2 feet from plant to plant. Their 

 growth, which generally consists of one strong shoot, 

 is allowed to remain intact till the following spring. 



They are then cut back more or less closely, with 

 the view of securing the production of one central 

 and two lateral shoots right and left ; consequently 

 not less than three buds must be left in the process 

 of pruning. The tree is thus with its three growths 

 termed a one-year-trained tree. In the spring of the 

 following year each of these three shoots is cut back 

 to from three to four buds from the base, so as to 

 secure a tree with from 9 to 10 shoots. The tree 

 having perfected the growth of these shoots, it is, as 

 far as its nursery career is concerned, a full-trained 



