and Pruning of the Peach Tree in France. 4-11 



or crossing each other, and well furnished with fruit. M. le 

 Comte Lelieuer was the founder of this school in 1817, in 

 collecting its scattered elements, which already existed in the 

 practice of many cultivators, and in joining thereto the results 

 of his own expei'ience. The addition which Count Lelieuer 

 may be said to have made to the Montreuil method consists in 

 filling up the two sides and the centre of the tree with branches. 

 In the Montreuil method, as those of our readers who have 

 looked into our Encyclopaedia must be aware, there are two 

 main branches allowed to every tree. These are, in general, 

 trained in at an angle of 4*5°, and the side branches proceeding 

 from them are laid in in such a manner as to cover great part 

 of the wall. There is always, however, a space in the centre of 

 the tree, and also one on each side of it next the ground, which 

 is left naked. Now, the grand object of Lelieur's method, or 

 that of the modern school, is to fill up these naked spaces with 

 bearing wood. This is to be effected by shortening the two 

 main branches when young, so as to produce four branches, and 

 the side shoots of these being trained in with care, the wall will 

 generally be found filled up. In doing this, when the lower 

 branches of the tree are found weak, they are not trained in like 

 the others, but allowed to grow right out for two or three 

 months, during which time they acquire a degree of strength as 

 great as that of the branches on the upper part of the tree. 

 The methods of the three schools are evidently different modi- 

 fications of what in England is called fan-training ; and there 

 can be no doubt whatever, that the modern method, its object 

 being to cover the wall completely with wood, is by far the best. 

 The origin of training the peach and the vine against walls 

 is thus given by Rogers Schabol. A cultivator of Montreuil 

 having by chance thrown the stone of a peach against a wall 

 with a south aspect, it grew up and produced fruit, which, from 

 the shelter and heat of the wall, were found to be larger, more 

 succulent, and of better flavour, than those produced on stan- 

 dard trees. This cultivator seeing that the heat of the wall 

 was favourable to the peach, fastened the shoots to it with nails 

 and ties, and found the fruit still larger and better. In what 

 year this cultivator lived is not stated ; but he is considered 

 as much more likely to be the inventor than Girardot, to whom 

 it is generally attributed. This Girardot lived in the time of 

 Louis XIV., when training the peach had already been prac- 

 tised at Montreuil sufficiently long to produce young Pepin, 

 who was the pupil of his father, already celebrated for training 

 the peach. 



