252 



HORTICULTURAL OBSERVATIONS ¥RGM FRENCH AUTHORS. 



Peaches only 

 cultivated at 

 Montrcuil. 



Some of tl 

 best raiseu 

 from the stone. 



Almond the 

 best stock, for 

 budding. 



brought any one kind to absolute perfection. In France, whole 

 villages are employed in the culture each of one single kind of 

 fruit. In consequence of this arrangement, the fruits, under 

 the management of individuals, who for many generafions have 

 exerted their whole energies to this one point only, are brought 

 to a degree of perfection, which can never be attained in a 

 garden, where fruits and vegetables of all sorts must be pro- 

 vided by one man, for a large and opulent family, or for a weekly 

 market. 



At Monlreuil*, a village near Paris, the whole population 

 has been maintained, for several generations, by the cultivation 

 of peaches, which is their sole occupation. It is there alone, 

 where the true management of this delicious fruit can be stu- 

 died and attained j for it is impossible, from written precepts, 

 to acquire the whole art. The modes of winter and ©f summer 

 pruning! are varied not only according to the differences of 

 soil and of exposure, but even according to the state and con- 

 stitution of each individual tree. 



Some of the best of their fruits are never budded, but 

 always reared from the stone ; the rest are budded on stocks of 

 a half wild peach, called peche de vigne. 



Peach trees, budded on an almond stock, are larger and more 

 durable than others ; but they require a deep and light soil, 

 and do not fruit so soon. The best almonds for stocks are the 



fruit-trees. 



* An English tourist tells us, that he had stored his carriage with 

 peaches, which he thought excellent ; when he arrived at Montreuil, the 

 inhabitants there, who offer their fruit for sale to travellers, told him 

 that he would, if he tasted one of theirs, throw those he had got out of 

 his chaise ; which, in fact, he did, as soon as he had tasted a Montreuil 

 peach. 

 Two modes of t Fruit trees may, in respect to their mode of bearing, be divided 

 bearing in into annuals or biennials. Figs, walnuts, &c., are annuals, that is, they 

 bear their fruit on the branches of the present year ; peaches and pears, 

 &c., are biennials, their fruit is produced on wood of the second year's 

 growth. In this case much advantage is derived from the practice of 

 rubbing off the leaf buds of the fruit-bearing branches, leaving only as 

 many as are wanted to produce wood for the succeeding year. This, 

 no doubt, is the taille d'6ti of the French ; it does not only leave the 

 remaining wood to grow stronger, and to ripen sooner, but it materially 

 increases the size of the fruit. The French use this method with their 

 Jigs, as is noticed in page 254. 



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