■230 THE PEACH AND NECIARINB. 



The surface watering of the tops of peaches is perhaps more serviceable 

 than the watering of their roots. The heat of south walls is so exceEsire 

 that on the evening of cloudless days the leaves feel flaccid to the touch as 

 if quite exhausted. And so they are. One of the beat means of recovering 

 vegetable as well as animal life is a shower bath, cold or tepid. Apply 

 this to the drooping trees any time from five to eight o'clock p.m. The 

 later the better (though convenience in suiting workmen's time gene- 

 rally causes the shower bath to be used too early), and the effect in 

 stiffening and strengthening the leaves and shoots is marvellous. The 

 water, if copiously applied, as it should be, reaches and moistens every 

 part of the tree, cools the walls, and strengthens every portion throughout 

 "the night to bear with less injury the strain of a long day' s sun on the 

 succeeding day. During hot weather this heavy overhead watering with 

 the garden engine should be given every day. The more water in reason 

 that is used the better the excess falls upon, moistens, and cools the 

 ground. This water, raised by the sun during the day, genialises the 

 local atmosphere around the trees, when it is most needed, and thus 

 assists the peaches to grow into larger size and to develop finer quali- 

 ties. As a meVe sanitary agent in keeping the trees clean and giving a 

 short shrift to red spider or aphides, &c., that may be lurking about 

 xeady to attack the trees, this daily shower bath in hot dry weather is 

 invaluable. 



^/^ III. — Mulching and Super Cropping the Roots. 



It is most convenient to discuss these two together,, for practically and 

 ■theoretically they are closely related. Mulching covers the roots with 

 dead matter, super cropping with living, and so far as merely protecting 

 "the surface of the border from excessive drought, heat, and cold, and the 

 waste of its substance or strength by wind and air, the result is very 

 much the same whether we mulch with dead substances or cover with 

 living crops. It may also be assumed that in general some kind of super 

 Kjovering of roots is desirable and useful. Nature even covers her roots 

 by the overshadowing of branches or stems, and also where that is too thin 

 or insufficient, as it mostly is, by a close growth of inferior and miscel- 

 laneous plants. We find nothing in nature analogous to a peach, vine, 

 ■or other tree border of bare earth. Surface coverings conserve the 

 moisture and strength of the ground, and also preserve the roots froip. 

 Budden and violent extremes of temperature. 



The worst and chief fault of covering with dense living crops is that, 

 in digging the ground- in preparation for them, the peach roots are too 



