304 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



RENOVATING PEACH-TREES. 



The peach-tree inclines to thicken at the top, the small 

 inside branches die, and are removed by every neat cultiva- 

 tor. As the branches shoot up, this tree is disposed to 

 abandon its lower branches, and, like the vine, to bear on 

 the wood the farthest from the root, i. e. the young and 

 new wood. In a few years the tree has a long-necked trunk, 

 sometimes several of them ; while the weight of foliage and 

 fruit is situated so as to act Uke a power applied to a lever ; 

 and as the fruit grows heavy, or a storm occurs, the tree is 

 broken down. We have practised the following method 

 with success. In the month of July we saw off the top of 

 one half of the tree, leaving about ten or twelve feet of 

 stem, measuring from the ground. New shoots will now 

 put out along the whole trunk ; a part of these should be 

 rubbed off, according to the judgment of the Cultivator, 

 leaving such as will give symmetry to the tree, and form a 

 head low down. The second year, these branches will bear 

 fruit, and the other side may then be treated in the same 

 way. 



This new head will require little meddling with for about 

 four years. At this time, or whenever the tree is outrun- 

 ning itself, the same process is to be renewed. But this 

 time the tree will be composed of a multitude of smaller 

 branches, instead of two or three main ones as at first. 

 Some of these should be wholly cut out, and the wound 

 smeared with a residuum of paint, or a thick white paint, 

 or grafting wax, or anything that will exclude the air while 

 the cut is granulating. The others are to be cut within, 

 say, five inches of the old, original wood — leaving, thus, a 

 stem of mere stumps. If the branches are taken entirely 

 off, leaving only the oldest wood, the buds which would 

 break from it would not be as liealthy or vigorous as those 

 which will spring from the stumps of the later branches. 



Probably twenty or thirty whips will come to each stump; 



