(luring the Summer Season. 435 



nagement of the peach and nectarine, and few offer any Re- 

 gular plan for their improvement. I here take the liberty of 

 contributing my mite along with the rest of your correspond- 

 ents. I conceive, from what I observed in the south of Eng- 

 land last summer, and from former observation, that the 

 greatest error is in the summer management. I will endea- 

 vour to give an account of our treatment of the trees at that 

 season, and leave it to you and your readers (should you think 

 it worthy of being laid before them) to judge as to its merits 

 or demerits. 



In the spring, as soon as the young shoots have grown 

 to about an inch long, we begin to disbud or thumb-prune 

 them, by taking off all the young shoots where there is no 

 blossom or fruit, except the lowest one upon the bearing 

 branch, and that at the extreme point of it : this end shoot is 

 allowed to grow about 3 in., and is then stopped ; and the 

 buds by the fruit all broken off to about four of their bottom 

 leaves, so as to make a cover for the young fruit until the 

 time of thinning, when those little spurs are taken away with 

 the fruit that is not wanted, and the others are retained along 

 with the fruit that is left. By so doing, we are only growing 

 the shoot that we shall want next year for bearing fruit, which 

 gives our trees an opportunity of extending themselves, and 

 making good wood ; but not so strong as Mr. Newington 

 describes (p. 55.), except in the centre of our young trees 

 (figs. 79, 80. in Vol. II. p. 295.), which are growing in a soil 

 nearly like that complained of by Mr. Errington (p. 54.) : in 

 which case we find little inconvenience ; for, instead of taking 

 off the summer laterals or water-shoots (as they are sometimes 

 called), as is generally done, we lay them in at regular dis- 

 tances, the same as we should a. natural spring shoot; and, if 

 they do not bear fruit the next summer, they will produce 

 fine bearing wood for a future year ; so that we have not to 

 shorten those strong shoots, but lay them in their whole length 

 for main or secondary leading branches, as we have at this 

 time shoots laid in, above 6 ft. long, of last year's growth, with 

 fruit upon their laterals. 



When the young shoots at the base of the fruit-bearing 

 ones, or the extending part of the leading branches, have 

 grown 4 or 5 in., they are tied down to the other branches as 

 close as they will admit without breaking or pinching them, 

 and kept close to the wall through the summer. By this means 

 they will get perfectly ripe and firm, and not be so luxuriant 

 as when permitted to grow from the wall almost wild ; and the 

 fruit must, of course, be larger when the wood is thin than 

 when it is permitted to grow twice as large as is necessary.. < 



f f 2 



