VI. LIST OF FRUITS. 



and the Violette hdtive. These are the best'peaches, ac- 

 cording to my observation j and, after the Early Anne, 

 I have placed them as they appear to me to be best 

 in quality j that is to say, the best first, and the least 

 good last. In point of bearing, the Royal George is a 

 famous peach, and it is not much excelled in any other 

 respect. Peaches should never be gathered (and the 

 same with regard to nectarines) until just about to drop 

 from the tree. They are not to be pulled 3 and if they 

 do not come off with just putting your hand under them 

 and giving them a little touch, they are not ripe 5 and an 

 unripe peach is a very poor thing. Some people place a 

 net along in front of the tree, tacked on one side to the 

 wall, and supported on the other by little forked sticks, 

 in order to catch the fruit when they fall, and to prevent 

 bruising. And this is a very good way when you have 

 not time to make an individual examination of the fruit ; 

 but, if one fall upon another, a bruising takes place in 

 spite of the swagging situation of the net. Peaches and 

 nectarines also may be preserved like apricots ; and they 

 make, if possible, still better pies and tarts -, though, for 

 these purposes, they should not be quite dead ripe. The 

 greatest possible attention must be paid to have your 

 trees of the right sort. When gentlemen go to a nur- 

 sery to choose trees, and especially trained trees, they 

 are too apt to be captivated by the appearance of the 

 plant-, but, as ill weeds grow apace, so it is with fruit 

 trees. A Catherine or a Magdalen peach would be of 

 twice the size in the same space of time as a French 

 Mignonneor a Montabon ; and, indeed, it may be laid down 

 as a general rule, that, in proportion as the fruit excels, 

 the stature of the tree is puny and its growth slow : it 

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