258 THE PEACH AND NECTAKINE. 



as the tree is almost sure to ezeroise its own selection at this perioci, and 

 reject and cast off a few of the fruit chosen by the cnltiTator. 



Immediately the stoning is completed the thinning of the fmit should be 

 carried out to its final extent. Nothing is gained and much lost by leaving 

 too many ; a fruit for each 9in. of area of tree or trellis is a good mean. 

 Some prefer Sin., which is much too close ; others a foot, which may be a 

 little too wide apart, unless in the case of the larger varieties. jOopious 

 ventilation is another means of enabUng forced peaches to set and hold a 

 good crop of fruit. Anything approaching a close stuffy atmosphere is 

 most abhorrent to peaches. The lack of fresh air in motion causes them 

 to cast off their fruit. In early forcing, however, the opposite extreme of 

 excessive ventilation, ending in drEiughts, must also be avoided ; a 

 thorough draught in February or March would often utterly ruin a crop of 

 forced peaches. Neither is it necessary to carry ventilation to extremes in 

 early farcing ; ventilators in the back waJl are the best for this purpose, 

 and far preferable to sliding lights or ventilators that open on the roof. 

 A very careful and sparing use of these will admit sufficient air to enable^ 

 the trees to hold their fruit, and also prevent the wood and leaves from 

 spindling into weakness. 



As the crop reaches maturity more air is needful, and it is generally 

 possible to admit air in front as well as the back of the house, and also by 

 night as weU as day. A stagnant atmosphere seems almost incompatible 

 with the development of the highest flavour in peaches, and, if possible, it 

 must be avoided, even in early forcing. More 'heat may also be 

 safely applied to peaches during their last stages. From 65deg. to 70deg', 

 of fire heat then becomes, for the first time in peach forcing, safe, with a 

 rise of lOdeg. by solar heat. In fact, it is only at the finish that peaches 

 can be hard forced with safety, and even then it is better to avoid it 

 unless the crop has to be raced against time, which is not unfrequently 

 the case. However much the crop may be hurried through its final 

 swelling, the fmit should be finished in a comparatively cool temperature 

 of 60deg. to 65deg., with plenty of air. Careful root watering must be 

 attended to right up to the ripening period. It is a mistake to suppose 

 that dryness at the root favours high flavour, though the opposite is 

 probably true — ^that an excess of water might lower flavour. But flavour 

 is more a chemical than a mechanical process. It is less influenced by 

 root absorption than solar transformations, though these last are 

 probably weakened or checked by a lack of moisture at the roots. For 

 the leaves — which flavour the fruit, of the present as weU as elaborate 

 sap, and store it away in fruit buda for next year's crop — can only be 

 preserved in health by a continuous and sufficient supply of sap sent up 

 from the roots. An insufficient supply not only arrests their functions but 



