THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 1 63 



FORCING AND GENEEAL MANAGEMENT. 



Time to commence forcing. — The time when ripe 

 peaches are required must, of course, regulate the time 

 when forcing has to be commmenced. As the peach 

 and nectarine will not submit to hard forcing, especially 

 in their earliest stages of progress, it takes about five and 

 a half months to ripen a crop when forcing is commenced 

 late in November. This may be termed very early forcing. 

 On referring to my note-books, I find that trees started — 

 by being shut up without fire-heat for the first fourteen 

 days — on the 15th November, ripened their first dishes 

 of fruit from the 24th to the 30th April. Those started 

 in January and February take fourteen days less time, 

 but the character of the season has much to do with the 

 exact time required to produce ripe fruit. Unless where 

 there are several peach-houses such early forcing is not 

 desirable, and if the trees are not in good condition it 

 should never be attempted. From the beginning to the 

 end of January is a good time to start the earliest house, 

 where there are, say, three peach-houses, allowing the 

 interval of a month between the starting of each house. 

 These early houses, with a late one in which no fire-heat 

 is used beyond what is necessary to protect the trees 

 from frosts or to ripen the wood in autumn, keep up 

 a long succession of peaches when the selection of 

 varieties is made to this end. In the case of young or 

 newly-planted trees that have not been accustomed to 

 early forcing, February is sufficiently early to begin to 

 force them the first year. The second they may be 

 started a month earlier. By beginning a few weeks 

 earlier every year, they can be worked round to start at 

 any time within the limits of what is practicable, much 



