PERSIC A, PEACH TREE. 51 



until about the beginning of March during the entire time that the sap is not running. 



VI. If the kinds of peach trees that tolerate being out in the open or raised from 

 pits are planted in vineyards, they will benefit from fertilization, tillage, & methods used 

 in vineyards and will become quite beautiful but they won't live very long. If the vine- 

 grower tops them off or does major pruning from time to time, it prolongs their life & 

 with this treatment some of them have lived more than thirty years. These same peach 

 trees raised as bush trees in a kitchen garden, pruned & cultivated, live even longer. 

 When planted on espalier, managed competently & skillfully pruned, they won't die 

 much sooner than the most vigorous of espalier trees. On the other hand, pear trees & 

 most fruit trees planted in orchards, when left to grow freely and not pruned, live very 

 much longer than on espalier. What accounts for these disparate results from the same 

 cause, pruning? One need not look beyond the procedure itself. 



Other kinds of fruit trees manage themselves more or less intelligently (I'll be free 

 with these terms). They control their productivity according to their age and their 

 strength. First of all they form their character: they yield fruit only as long as their 

 fruitfulness won't hinder their growth & alter their constitution. A single branch will 

 produce only as many new ones as it can nourish without weakening itself. All of the 

 tree's parts in proportion to their number, strength, and size contribute in equal measure 

 toward their growth & preservation. Curtailment & reductions as a result of pruning are 

 just so many injuries to their strength. They don't give them a pleasing shape & force 

 their productivity as much as they hasten their ruin. For it must be said that despite the 

 opinion & common practice of gardeners, the less that trees are curtailed by pruning, 



