THOMSON ON PEACH TRAINING 365 



train them to walls, or that we give them any 

 other special or peculiar treatment in the way of 

 training. Those who are interested in Old World 

 practices, however, or who desire to train peaches 

 on walls or in houses, will appreciate the follow- 

 ing extract from Thomson : * 



"Many ways of training and pruning the peach and 

 nectarine have been practiced and recommended. French 

 horticulturists especially have been very successful in train- 

 ing them in several ways characterized by regularity and 

 neatness. The single -cordon as well as the multiciple- 

 cordon systems are favorite modes of training in France. 

 Modifications, partaking more or less of the French sys- 

 tems, have been practiced and recommended, especially by 

 Seymour, in England. But the ordinary fan system of 

 training is by far the most generally practiced and liked. 

 It is, especially under glass, the mode of training which 

 the most successful forcers of the peach have adopted, and 

 it is that which I recommend. Many grand old examples of 

 peach trees under glass are to be found in this country, 

 which have all along been trained on the fan principle, and 

 that are yet in fine bearing condition, being well furnished 

 from top to bottom with young bearing wood. Taking a 

 young tree, which I have recommended for planting as the 

 foundation of a fan-trained tree, different cultivators who 

 are most in favor of this system of training would deal 

 differently with the ten young growths [five branches on 

 each side, and no leader, all arising from near the top of a 

 short trunk] with which it is furnished. Some would cut 

 them all back again to within five or six buds of their base ; 

 others would not shorten them at all, but would let them 



* David Thomson, "Handy Book of Fruit Culture Under Glass," 152, 

 with figures. 



