192 THE PEACH AND NECTAKINE. 



September may be out back within six weeks of the time of budding. 

 These plants, however, seldom do so well on the whole as those from 

 buds that rest through the winter and gather up their vital force for a 

 bold start the succeeding March. Hence the precocious development 

 of buds should be rather guarded against than encouraged. It 

 has been the usual practice to allow the shoots of peaches and necta- 

 rines produced <he first year from the bud to grow without phecking or 

 stopping the first season. They will often run to a length of a foot or 

 more, breaking out into laterals towards the tops of the shoots (Fig. 11). 

 These shoots have then to be out back the following winter or spring to 

 within 6in. or so of the base of the shoots. This growth has the advantage 

 of developing the roots to the fullest possible extent. This, however, may 

 readily be overdone, and as the shoot generajly has its counterpart 

 under ground, it is extremely doubtful whether long strong roots 

 of this character are not in the end injurious to the trees. It is 

 certain they retard rather than hasten fertility. The few shoots 

 removed also represent a loss of time and force, especially as they were 

 wholly unnecessary, for it is easy to direct growing force to more 

 profitable purposes than the production of food for the pruning knife. 

 By stopping the new shoots of the bud when it has made, say, six fine 

 leaves, as many shoots of medium growth may be produced and matured 

 as there are buds in the axils of the leaves left (Mg. 13) . Each of these 

 shoots may also be converted into a fruit-bearing one, and, if not, each 

 will help to form the leaves of a perfect tree at once, and a year sooner 

 than it could be formed by the usual method of cutting the tree back to 

 a few buds and so sacrificing a year's solar, vital, soil, and air force. 



In the case of grafts each bud on the scion, or, at least, as many as are 

 wanted to furnish the tree, are preserved and encouraged to grow at once, 

 and this grafting becomes also a means of saving time, and the raising 

 and also fruiting of peaches and nectarines earlier than the usual mode of 

 budding and after treatment. Nevertheless, budding is the best method 

 of propagating all stone fruit, and it depends on the treatment of the 

 buds whether a season's growing force and a year's time are to be sacri- 

 ficed or not. 



Training. 



Thbeb are few things more interesting and even beautiful to the eye of 

 the cultivator than that of a well-formed fuUy furnished peach or necta- 

 rine tree. And such form and furnishing comprises the art of training. 

 That art is at once more easy and more difficult in regard to peaches than 



