THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 1 69 



SETTING THE FEUIT. 



I have never found the least difficulty in getting 

 peaches to set freely, even when they have been started 

 in November. The only means I have ever adopted to 

 make a good set of fruit doubly sure, is to slightly in- 

 crease the temperature immediately the blooms are fully 

 expanded, to give rather more air, and to go over the 

 blossoms at mid-day with a camel's-hair brush, and im- 

 pregnate them, taking pollen from those sorts, such as 

 Violette Hative, which produce it more freely than 

 others, and applying it to such as Noblesse, which 

 produce it more sparingly. 



I do not think th^t setting depends so much on 

 either dryness or moisture as on a circulation of warm air, 

 which causes the pollen to come to proper maturity. 

 Some growers advise that the trees be syringed with 

 tepid water when in full bloom, and practise this to set 

 their peach-crop successfully. I have never adopted 

 this, and never found it necessary, but it is practised 

 by successful early forcers of the peach. There can be 

 no difficulty in accepting what has been said in its 

 favour, inasmuch as it can be easily understood how the 

 particles of pollen can be separated and carried down 

 the pistil by means of water, as well as air. It is, 

 in as far as it can be aided, a mechanical process. 

 I consider the chief thing is to produce a strong healthy 

 bloom and fructifying organs, by cautious forcing, and 

 then the setting of the fruit is almost a certainty. 



