Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. 57 



While this is taking place, the unmutilated weaker shoot 

 acquires the necessary strength." Branches of wall trees 

 which are left loose, and capable of being moved by wind, 

 grow more vigorously than such as are attached to the wall ; 

 hence the obvious rule to nail or tie the strongest shoots first. 

 An upright shoot grows more freely than a bent one ; hence 

 to reduce two inequal shoots to an equality, elevate the weaker 

 and depress the stronger. On the same principle the weaker 

 shoots are left on the upper side of an inclined branch, and 

 the stronger shoots on the under side. " Every experienced 

 gardener knows that a peach tree, without regularity, can 

 neither be productive nor long-lived," and that the operations 

 mentioned are of " the utmost moment, since they enable us 

 to maintain the equilibrium of the sap, — to husband the 

 resources of the tree, and obviate the necessity of repeated 

 amputation, of which the peach tree is extremely impatient." 



2. The peach tree is trained by the French in the open fan 

 manner, which is considered the most effective in suppressing 

 the direct channel of the sap in facilitating the reproduction of 

 branches. They divide the tree into two equal portions, 

 which they spread out diagonally, leaving the centre com- 

 pletely open ; a practice which enables the cultivator to accom- 

 modate the tree to low walls, and which contributes much to 

 ease, freedom, and regularity, in the operations of pruning 

 and training. This is the practice at Montreuil, and appears 

 to have been invented about the beginning of last century, 

 though scarcely known till brought into notice by the Abbe 

 Roger Schabol in 1755, the most eminent horticulturist of his 

 time. {Encyc. of Gard. p. 1118. A. D. 1767.) According to 

 this principle, the fundamental form of the tree is that of 

 the letter V; the two principal or mother branches {mere- 

 branches) being attached to the wall at an angle of 45°. " The 

 other branches are all situated on these principal limbs, and 

 diverge from them at angles varying with the age and vigour 

 of the tree." 



Count Lelieur, in his Pomone Francaise, has described a 

 mode of training which he calls Dumoutier's (a la Dumoutier), 

 from the name of its inventor. It resembles that of Mon- 

 treuil, but diifers from it by the entire renovation of the bear- 

 ing shoots every year, which, being cut down almost to their 

 insertion, give a pinnated appearance to the branches. In this 

 particular it coincides with Seymour's mode of pruning. {Gard. 

 Mag. vol. i. p. 128., and vol. ii. p. 295.) It is observed by Mr. 

 Smith, that a near approach to Lelieur's directions has been 

 made by Harrison ( Treatise on Fruit Trees), in his excellent 

 directions for the treatment of peach trees. 



