380 



JOURNAL OF HOETICtTLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ Mar 16, 1865. 



sap. during the period of its greatest ascent, at the base of 

 the shoot, which is produced by judicious summer stopping. 

 In some mysterious way an obstacle is created, which appears 

 to concentrate the cambium in the cellulai- tissue near the 

 base of the nascent bud, and by this retarded cii'culation to 

 produce eventually a cluster of blossom-buds, which are 

 eminentlj- fruitful. It is not, however, pretended that late 

 summer stopping would be so successful. 



2X1) DIVISION OF PEACH SHOOTS. 

 5. The Clcstee Shoot or Spur (fig. 5). — The word 



•doflter, which so appropriately represents the appearance 

 of the bloBsom-buds b, round the terminal leaf-bud c, is 

 synonymous with the French term "bouquet." By this 

 last name this particular spur is known all over France. 

 Dubreuil calls it rameau a fruit loxtqitd ; and Gressent and 

 Lepore call it bouquet de nmi. Knight appears to desig- 

 nate it as a "spur," and the word "cluster" may be con- 



. sidered an appropriate English rendering. Class 5 consti- 

 tutes the basis of very close pruning, such as that which 

 M. Grin, of Chartres, practises, and is also the end and aim 



- of established orchard-house training. This class is common 

 on the two and three-year-old wood, and indicates both 

 fertility and health in the tree. Under all forms of cordon 

 training Peach trees this type is iibundant. Together with 

 No. 7 it should in orchard-houses form the gi-eatest portion 

 of the fruit-bearing shoots. In the case of a Downton Nec- 

 tarine bush which had been about eight years in a pot in 

 my orchard-house, out of 120 fruitful shoots no less than 

 110 were of Classes 5 and 7. The blossom-buds almost all 

 set in clusters of four- or five, requiring to be thinned down to 

 one fine specimen. All writers agree that this class of shoot 

 should not be meddled with or pruned in any way ; neither 

 should it ever be rubbed oif, no matter where it occurs. It 

 is a perfect type, and wiU reproduce itself by means of its 

 terminal leaf-bud, besides matui-ing the finest fruit. At 

 the ensuing season it may present tlie appearance of 



Fig. 5. 



Fig. 6. 



6. The Fruit Spue aftee bearing (fig. 6). — This is 

 one of the types of perfect shoots which have been 

 added to M. Dubreuil's classification. It has, therefore, no 

 French synonymous name ; nevertheless, it is of a sufficiently 

 distinctive character and appearance to warrant a separate 

 notice. To orchard-house pruners especially it will be wel- 

 come, as it is occasionally difficult to treat. The reason is 

 that the specimen here drawn from nature is of a slender 

 form, and the blossom-buds at b have evidently fallen off 

 without setting, which shows a want of vitality in the tree. 

 A shorter and more sturdy form, then, might have been 

 chosen to represent the class, and then it would probably 

 have appeared where the fruit had been attached. This one 

 baa not elongated much, the leaf-bud c marks its extreme 

 development ; at the same time it is on the point of exten- 

 sion, and will by the end of the summer remain a short 

 bearing cluster shoot, all the portion below c being, how- 

 ever, bare ever afterwards. It is certainly a good class of 

 shoot, and should not be suppressed in orchard-house 

 pruning, and rarely, unless a foreright, in out-door work. 

 It will not grow strongly in any case and is, therefore, 

 valuable for bearing next season. It has but the single 

 defect of an inch of unfruitful wood. Not to notice it would 

 be to leave amateurs in ignorance of what the numerous 

 "clnsters " look like after the season Is over. 



7. The Fkuit Sprat (fig. 7). — This class is included by 

 Dubreuil under the head of "proper fruit shoots," which 

 he says ai'e "from 4 inches" in length; but from other 

 specimens which were photographed for this work, and 

 which were taken from strong-growing trees, it was seen 

 how this type passes, like the others, into Class No. 2 when- 

 ever the blossom-buds are arranged in groups with a leaf- 

 bud between them. It is the fact of the single blossom- 

 buds, in which No. 6 alone participates, which marks the 

 distinctive character of this beautiful class. 8 also has 

 only single blossom-buds, but it has no terminal leaf-bud, 

 which No. 7 has ; 7 has, therefore, been promoted to the 

 honour of being a separate type, and it occurs very frequently 

 on healthy and well-managed trees, both in-doors and in 

 the open air. This class having a terminal leaf-bud will, 

 besides bearing, extend, and having sometimes a latent bud 

 at the base may, ty judicious summer- stopping, become 

 double, in which case generally shoots of the same character 

 will be formed. This is a valuable disposition in this class, 

 and for many reasons it should be retained instead of being 

 suppressed, as it often is. 5 and 7 are essentially orchard- 

 house shoots, being developed more readily under the some- 

 what artificial treatment therein practised. 



Fig. ?. 



Fig. 8. 



8. Baeeen Spray. Chiffon of Dubreuil (fig. 8). — An 

 unsatisfactory class, indicating neglect or a bad habit of 

 the tree itself. There is much difference of opinion among 

 long-pruners how to treat this class, but if retained they 

 should be cut to above the lowest fruit-bud. They occur in 

 orchard-house bush trees frequently, and show defective 

 pi-uning, because by stopping they would probably have 

 passed into some other type, or, at the worst, dried up en- 

 tirely. When very injudiciously managed a bush tree may 

 soon become crowded with them, some being much longer 

 than the specimen selected, and others having a bare portion 

 below them. All tliis arises from neglecting to observe 

 that there is no terminal leaf-bud, so that the shoot is 

 blind. 

 These eight classes of shoots are all that we may look to 

 1 find in ordinary cases. Wherever there seems any variation 



