on the Management of Peach Trees. 431 



Peach trees left in a great measure to nature, and growing 

 in the open air, in a soil and climate congenial to them, will 

 not fail to exert those powers with which nature has furnished 

 them, and every other kind of fruit tree, to accomplish the 

 end for which they were created, namely, to bear fruit ; and, 

 I reckon, they will produce short stiff branches for that pur- 

 pose. But a peach tree trained against a wall, in this country, 

 is quite a different thing. A gentleman is at a great expense 

 in building garden walls, and it is required that the trees 

 which are planted against it cover as much of the face of the 

 wall as possible, so that every part of it may return annually 

 some part of the original outlay : and, if short pruning is not 

 resorted to, this cannot be effected ; for, without it, the trees 

 would soon become naked in the centre, and this nakedness 

 would spread progressively as the tree advanced in age. Of 

 this, too many of the trees in England bear incontestable proofs. 



I said above, that much depended on soil and situation ; 

 and, before I proceed further, I will submit a few observations 

 on these points. Peach trees planted in a strong-bodied soil, 

 on a clayey subsoil, will generally be inclined to produce 

 gross" long-jointed wood, which frequently does not ripen ; 

 and those growing in a weak soil, upon a substratum of gravel 

 or other porous matter, have quite a different appearance : 

 here the wood is moderately stiff, short-jointed, and generally 

 ripens well ; and such is to be preferred for bearing fruit before 

 any other sort. Low situations, which are often sheltered, con- 

 fined, and damp, are likewise generally productive of grassy, 

 long-jointed wood ; and moderately high, exposed, and dry 

 situations produce short-jointed fruitful wood. Hence the 

 necessity of choosing (where the choice is to be had) a situ- 

 ation for these trees (and, in fact, most other fruit trees) 

 which is not too much confined and damp ; and, where the 

 border intended for them is not naturally drained, to lay 

 under it a sufficient quantity of real draining materials, and 

 not to make the border of a too strong-bodied soil. 



If it is taken for granted that the most suitable wood for 

 producing fruit is short-jointed and stiff (say from one eighth 

 to three sixteenths of an inch in diameter), it remains to be 

 considered how a regular supply of such wood is to be ob- 

 tained, so far as pruning, &c, may effect it, where the soil and 

 situation are not favourable for it on trees that have been 

 some time established. In this case, transplantation, where 

 the trees are not too old, may be most judiciously resorted 

 to for once; not so much for the purpose of the immediate 

 checking of the tree as for repairing the substratum, and re- 

 ducing the strength of the border by adding sand, &c. : were 



