220 THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 



^ As to -width of border, that is far more varied than the depth. It 

 varies from 3ft. to 24ft. The old-fashioned plan, which was sonnd in. 

 theory and proved very suooeaaful in practice, was to regulate the width 

 of the border by the height of the wall. This is a general principle ap- 

 plioable to all cases. It may be modified at will to adapt it to every 

 ;()ossible necessity of individnal cases, bnt the leading principle of the 

 common rule should never be lost sight of. It was based on the now 

 wen known law of the correlation of force and development. Thus : 

 Eoot and top growth, under equally favourable conditions, may be held 

 to be equal and alike. That is, the one will run as far and ramify as much 

 as the other. Hence, for every foot of wall for the top of the peach, it 

 should find a foot of soil for its roots. It must, however, be borne in mind 

 that we measure walls by foot superficial, and borders of necessity by 

 cube measure. Hence the roots find more room in the borders than 

 the boughs on the wall. In practice, however, each plane of roots 

 may run as far along any part of the border as the branches run up the 

 wall, and in wall trees there can be little doubt that the roots under- 

 ground far exceed in numbers, and probably also in extent of ramifica- 

 tion, the branches on the wall. Be that as it may, it is important that 

 peach and nectarine trees displayed on hot dry brick walls not seldom 

 exposed to an exhausting temperature of from 80 deg.to 100 deg., should 

 have a sufEicient depth and superficial area of root run to enable them to 

 make good the dissipation of their fluids almost before it is absorbed 

 or elaborated. Evaporation proceeds with marvellous energy from peach 

 trees on walls on hot days, and Bhoi:(ld food or moisture at the roots fail, 

 the results are most injurious. There is no surer and more certain mode of 

 preventing such failures than by the simple and easy one of providing 

 sufficient soil of the proper quality at the time of planting. Ten or 

 12ft. is a fair average width of border for peaches and nectarines. There 

 is often danger and injury to peach trees from making the borders too 

 wide. With rather narrow or medium sized borders, the cultivator 

 cannot forget that the soil belongs to the peach primarily, if not 

 solely; but wider borders of 18ft. or 24ft. are often supercropped 

 with vegetables, with little regard to the presence or well doing of 

 the peach ; masses of the finest roots are torn up in the digging, and not 

 nnfrequently heavy dressings of rank manure are also dug in annually. 

 The results too often are suckers from the root, and canker among them, 

 and on the top of the trees an arrestment of branch here, and a gross 

 development there, according as the feeder of the one has been severed, and 

 of the other overfed, and other evils ending in the undermining of the health, 

 the destruction of the symmetry and life of the tree. Whether peach tree 

 borders are made narrow or wide, it must never be overlooked amid the 



