TRAINING THE PEACH. 9 



deed any fruit tree, makes wood of a fruitless character, 

 do not cut it much, but lay in more wood during the 

 summer growth, and I can vouch for success in bringing 

 any tree into a good fruit-bearing state. 



Some think that if a Peach-tree gets into the subsoil 

 it will not bear fruit. I confess that if the subsoil is of 

 a cold retentive clay, and lying upon a flat, the chances 

 are much against it, and also against the well-being of 

 the trees themselves. But who would plant trees of 

 this sort on such soils without first draining them, and 

 otherwise preparing them for Peach-growing ? No one. 

 Then I contend that no one need fear on account of 

 fruitless Peaches getting into a good, well-drained sub- 

 soil. 



Training Peaches on Walls. 



In the case of the " cordon Peach-tree " a certain 

 amount of constant training is a principle that cannot 

 be departed from, especially if summer pruning is 

 literally carried out ; for then not only the main leader 

 will be a permanent thing as long as the tree exists, 

 but the laterals will be of the same character also. 

 But in the case of the fan-trained tree permanency 

 will soon prove ruinous, because they, like all others, 

 run to the extremities, and even more so. Moreover, 

 they cannot be controlled so easily without cutting 

 back, unnailing, and replacing the wood extracted 

 from the tree every season. It is this permanency in 

 fan-trained trees that ruins the Peach-trees on walls. 



In pruning a fan-trained Peach, let the novice be 

 careful to attend to the unnailing, cutting back the 

 most prominent leaders of the tree, and maintaining 

 the character of Fig. 6 and Fig. 9, whether the tree is 

 young, medium, or old, and also to train his trees ac- 

 cordingly. The first thing to do, when a tree is to be 

 trained uniformly (and it may as well be done so as in 

 an indifferent manner or irregularly, like Fig. 7, and 

 they are sometimes much worse), is to lay out each of 

 the primary leaders, a a a a a a, Fig. 6, dividing 

 them equally and quite straight, and making them 



b 3 



