206 THE PEACH AND NECTAMNE. 



are lost if the trees are overcrowded with wood. This converts them into 

 a sort of half standards backed against walls, instead of thinly 

 distributed fan or other shaped trees displayed over its surface, and thus 

 fnlly exposed to solar inflaenoes, the originating and sustaining causes of 

 fertility. 



There are yet two other methods in which pruning concentrates fer- 



Fie. 40. 



Pig. 11. 



tility. One is to remove unfertile wood, and thus make more apace for 

 that which is fertile ; and' the other, by summer or root pruning, con- 

 vert what would have been barren wood into fruitful* (See Kgs. 40, 41.) 

 There is a strength of growth that leads to sterility (Fig. 40), though 

 a certain amount of vigour, is essential to the production of good crops 

 of peaches and nectarines, and over-luxuriance is by no means the evil 

 nor the danger in peach as in pear growing. Hence root pruning is 

 seldom necessary, and shoxild not be resorted to unless in extreme cases. 



