280 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



milk, it is difficult to distinguish it from the flavoured 

 cordial of Martinique. 



Michaelmas is the time recommended for the winter 

 pruning of the nectarine, as well as the peach-tree, when, 

 with little attention, the blossom-buds will be known from 

 the wood-buds ; the latter being less turgid, longer, and 

 narrower, than the blossom-buds. In shortening the 

 branches, observe to leave a wood-bud at the end instead 

 of the fruit-bud. Care should be taken to nip off the ends 

 of the strong shoots in the month of May, which will 

 cause them to throw out new boughs in every part of the 

 tree, as it produces its fruit from the young wood, either 

 of the same, or at the most of the former year's shoot. 



Peach-trees are often injured by a desire to retain too 

 full a crop on the branches, which not only prevents the 

 present fruit from coming to maturity, but, by exhausting 

 the tree, prevents its fruiting in future years. When the 

 peach has attained the size of a small gooseberry, the trees 

 should be carefully thinned, leaving the fruit not nearer 

 than from four to six inches to each other. 



In dry summers, when the branches are well set with 

 fruit, these trees necessarily require moisture. We ob- 

 serve, ht general, too little attention paid to the watering 

 of fruit-trees : we recommend trenches to be thrown up 

 round the stems, and these trenches to be filled up with 

 bean-stalks, half-decayed leaves, sticks, or any litter of 

 that nature that will break the fall of the water, and keep 

 the ground moist for a longer period. 



From the wood of the peach-tree the colour called rose- 

 pink is procured. 



