68 Culture of the Peach in the open Air. 



the pruning and nailing season arrives ; otherwise the plant will 

 hang by the shreds as the soil settles down, and expose the roots, 

 to the manifest injury of the tree. This is a point worth 

 attention in all new-planted trees, especially if in an entirely 

 new-formed border. 



Much has been written on training the peach tree, and every 

 scientific cultivator has his favourite system. The kitchen- 

 garden at Bicton, which I originally planned and planted about 

 nine years ago, contains a greater number of fine specimens of 

 training, than I have ever witnessed in any one garden ; therefore, 

 to detail the manner of training so successfully pursued there 

 under my direction may suffice for our present purpose. I 

 may, however, remark by the way, that the system, because it is 

 a system, recommended by Seymour and described in Loudon's 

 Gardener's Magazine for ]826, has not been so generally 

 adopted as its apparent simplicity would have induced us to 

 expect. Not having seen it either extensively or very successfully 

 practised, its superiority became a questionable matter ; there- 

 fore I adhered to another mode, presenting to me superior 

 claims, because conforming more to the natural character and 

 habits of the tree, advantages in my humble opinion not to be 

 overlooked; as by this system a more regular distribution and 

 elaboration of the sap is maintained, and thereby assistance to 

 provide the kind and quantity of wood so desirable to induce 

 health, secure a crop, and prolong the age of the tree. The 

 mode of training which I commenced with in 1832 is also 

 described in Loudon's Garde?ier's Magazine for 1834, and seems 

 to have been successfully practised by the able author of that 

 paper for thirty years. This system deviates from the old fan 

 manner of training, by regularly bending the branches in a 

 curvilinear manner from the bole of the tree to their extremities, 

 and giving them a slight tend- 

 ency to the top of the wall. In ^^, -~-,^ 



this plan of training, the grand l-"' \ ~"i| 



principle is, to elongate the under ."^ \\ „^j' ¥"//.. y \ 

 side branches, so as to give them ^ \ J (/ / / y "^ 

 precedence of the central ones; / x\A^^*^ V ^^ '■dV'^^'^ 

 this will regulate the propul- / /^^^^^^^^j^^s^-^ \ 



sion and distribution of the sap, ; / ^^ 



and moderate the shoots in the - -As^a,,^^ 



centre of the tree. By the '"^ _ ^ , 



, . r ^ • • 1 1 F'B- 20. A Peach Tree, three years nfter plant- 



adoption Ol this very simple and ,;ig, trained in Mr. Errtngton's rnanner. 



natural system of training the 



peach tree, various inexplicable failures will be avoided; such as 

 premature decay, an unequal (]uantity of young wood in the 

 centre of the tree, and the constant and grievous calamity of 

 losing the entire under limbs, and completely disfiguring it for 



