696' On training the Peach and Nectarine* 



enough has been said on the subject ; yet I trust you will allow 

 me to vindicate what I had before written, which, I perceive, 

 will be liable to misconstruction. 



In Mr. Seymour's paper, I observe, he remarks that his 

 young trees are growing in a soil nearly like that complained 

 of by me. I wish he had said how nearly. Has he the same 

 proportion of dung in the soil ? Is this soil as sandy as I 

 described mine to be ? Is his subsoil as porous and dry ? And 

 does he desire excessivelyluxuriant wood, as a matter of choice ? 

 I beg to repeat that my trees not only made the basket-rods 

 (as Mr. Newington calls them) in the centre of the trees, but 

 to the very bottom of the wall ; and those shoots averaged in 

 length 3 to 6 ft. Now, the trees having been planted 6 yds. 

 apart only, and the wall being 10 ft. high, I remember saying- 

 it was difficult to know how to prune them to provide a nice 

 succession of w r ood : and so it was ; for pruning could not 

 effect what I required, as the extremities of the shoots had 

 already met in many places. Now, I intended to move them 

 all and place them farther apart, but I was requested by a 

 proper authority not to do so ; therefore I will describe what I 

 did. I opened a trench before them, at about 6 ft. from the wall, 

 and cut a just proportion of all their straggling roots at a tuft 

 of fibres, which I combed carefully out in a horizontal direc- 

 tion, and replaced the soil. I then removed about 6 in. in 

 depth of the part of the border between their roots and the 

 walk, and dressed it with 6 in. of fat turfy loam, forking it in, 

 and mixing it with the sand 2 ft. deep. Be it remembered, 

 I was placing this fat loam on a bottom exceedingly dry and 

 porous ; and those minutiae must be borne in mind by our cri- 

 tics, for I beg not to be understood as recommending stiff soil 

 on a retentive subsoil. However, to proceed, I cut the trees, 

 leaving every luxuriant leader, just as Mr. Seymour recom- 

 mends (although I never heard of his system), nearly its full 

 length ; having also reserved a pair of laterals in the summer 

 (disbudding towards the base of each luxuriant shoot), and in 

 some exceedingly luxuriant shoots, two pairs. Other wood of 

 a weaker character, and nearer home, I pruned a little closer. 

 I have now to state, that I will show that wall of trees (240 ft. 

 long) against any of the same age ; and for symmetry, equal- 

 ised strength, a just medium degree also, and complete suc- 

 cession of wood without any nakedness, I think they cannot 

 be surpassed. I now beg to offer a few remarks on what I 

 humbly conceive to be either erroneous or immaterial, in plans 

 proposed by a few writers in the Magazine latterly ; and hope 

 to give no offence by the liberty taken, as I shall most wil- 

 lingly, in my turn, submit to the lash. 



