64 Culture of the Peach in the open Air. 



therefore apply to that mode of culture. It is almost useless to 

 state that the nectarine is a mere variety of the peach, and the 

 treatment suitable to the one is equally so to the other. 



The preparation of the border, and the proper soil to secure 

 healthy and fruitful trees, form a fundamental part of our enquiry ; 

 it is the groundwork of the whole. So much in truth depends 

 upon a border prepared upon sound principles, that, unless this 

 is done, it will be impossible to produce healthy, well ripened, 

 and fruitful wood. Borders, to be attended with such a result, can 

 only be properly formed by gardeners who possess a physiological 

 knowledge of the peach tree. As the branches are subjected to 

 artificial regulation, it becomes equally important to place the 

 roots under similar control, and to obviate as much as possible 

 the absorption of ingredients placed beyond the reach of at- 

 mospheric influence. It never can be too often insisted upon, 

 nor too well understood, that noxious juices are always found 

 in a more fluid state, and in that condition much more readily 

 imbibed, than nutritious juices ; and that these crude ingredients 

 are found in far greater quantities at a considerable distance 

 from the surface, beyond the reach of atmospheric action, which 

 alone can decompose the carbonic acid, and assimilate the 

 proper juice; bearing in mind, also, that the absorption of 

 liquids depends upon their degrees of fluidity, and that impure 

 and imperfectly converted juice is always found in that state, 

 and the further it is removed from solar influence, so is its 

 degree of fluidity, and hence also its perniciousness. How often 

 do we hear complaints of failure? And the mystery under which 

 these are enveloped is the vigorous state of the trees, which are 

 annually producing immense quantities of redundant shoots, 

 requiring the saw to remove them. We hear the cause at- 

 tributed to a bad season, or a bad situation, w^hile in truth it is 

 a radically bad border, equally badly managed. This annual 

 dislodgement of so much wood, produced in consequence of 

 such an abundant supply of impure food, placed out of the reach 

 of the action of the atmosphere, and thus freely absorbed by the 

 spongelets, renders pruning unavoidable and extensive, so that 

 sound cicatrisation is rarely effected. Gum will therefore be 

 found exuding in all directions : this is caused by so much 

 lopping becoming necessary to keep the tree within bounds. 

 The excerning of gum is a sure sign of the absorption and im- 

 perfect elaboration of an undue portion of noxious fluids. The 

 sap thus extravasated frequently accumulates under a degree of 

 compression in the old branches of the tree; it will therefore be 

 found excreting as the temperature increases, and accumulating 

 in impenetrable masses, completely preventing the ascent and 

 descent of the sap, and ultimately producing death wherever 

 these indurated lumps form. 



