THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 



493 



subject he says : " As the fructification of plants 

 depends much upon the state and condition of 

 the branches, and the surface of the trank, 

 branches, and leaves exposed to the sun and 

 the air, the proper adjustment and arrangement 

 of these must be an important object of our 

 consideration. Experience proves that very 

 fine fruit is seldom produced on vei-y strong 

 or on very weak branches, but generally on 

 branches of a middle growth ; therefore, to 

 render n. tree permanently fruitful, it must be 

 necessary to manage and train it in such a 

 manner that all the sustenance furnished by the 

 roots shall be appropriated to the production of 

 branches of a proper and equal growth, and that 

 these be so arranged as to present the needful 

 surface of leaves to the required infiuence of 

 the sun and air. In determining the form and 

 figi.u:e of a tree, as few persons are so devoid of 

 taste as to prefer deformity to symmetry, or to 

 be indifferent whether their plants and trees ex- 

 hibit beauty or ugliness iu their forms and 

 figures, we may take it for granted that it must 

 be desirable, as far as possible, to blend beauty 

 with prolificacy in training them, which may be 

 done in great perfection. But the raising and 

 training a tree is like the building of a house, 

 or the raising any regular structure ; for if the 

 plan be not first arranged and understood, and 

 a proper foundation laid to sustain it, disorder 

 and confusion must pervade the structure, and 

 it can never be rendered desirable, commodious, 

 or elegant. Then as the first stem and branch 

 of a plant must form the foundation of the 

 future tree, before we fix on a plan, or begin to 

 train, we must first determine the space it is 

 intended to occupy, and next, the form we wish 

 it to assume. Every plant and tree is appointed 

 by nature to attain a certain comparative height, 

 and fill a certain comparative space, before it 

 fructifies. Then in determining the heights to 

 which plants and trees shall grow, we may con- 

 sider the objects of nature to be two — the one 

 to place it above the obstruction of inferior 

 plants, the other to afford a certain surface of 

 bark, or such a space of trunk and stem for the 

 sap to pass over and through, as is necessary to 

 prepare that which is required for fructifica- 

 tion." To the second of these our subject is 

 more especially at present directed. " Then 

 how to attain the required surface of bark, or 

 of stem or trunk, within 1 foot or 2 of the 

 earth, with a tree that nature has appointed to 

 grow 8 or 10 feet high before it forms its head 

 for fructification (which is the case with the 

 peach tree), must be the first or grand object of 

 training ; and, as has been observed, as the peach 

 tree bears its fruit on shoots of the last year, 

 and when the branches are either too strong or 

 too weak they will not bear fine fruit, it must 

 be necessary to train this tree in such a manner 

 and form that its sap shall be so equally divided 

 as to form shoots of a medium growth, and that 

 they be so placed as uniformly and constantly 

 to cover the same space with fruit branches 

 every successive year. The sap in all erect 

 young trees, of which the peach is one, vsUl 

 flow into and through those channels that oc- 

 cupy the most vertical position next the root ; 

 VOL. II. 



HAVWARD S MODE OF 

 PEACH-TRAINING. 



HA\WAHD S MODB OF 

 PEACH-TRAINING. 



Fig. 219. 



and it is not only in this respect evident that 

 the flow of the sap is impelled by a principle 

 directly opposite to that which impels the 

 flow of water, but as 

 water will flow over a 

 great height above its 

 level, with equal rapid- 

 ity through a syphon as 

 through a tube of the 

 same size placed in a 

 declining position, and 

 leading into an open 

 space below its level ; 

 so will the sap flow 

 through a branch so 

 disposed as to form an 

 inverted syphon in 

 equal quantity as 

 through the same 

 branch had it been 

 fixed in a vertical posi- 

 tion. Thus the strong- 

 est shoot wUl form 

 at the point-bud a, 

 fig. 217 ; or as in figs. 

 218 and 219. But if a 

 branch be fixed in a 

 horizontal position " — 

 as in fig. 220— "the 

 Strongest shoot will be 

 produced in the most 

 vertical bud nearest the 

 base a, and the point- 

 bud b will form the 

 weakest shoot : it must, 

 then, be obvious, that 

 if it be desired to train 

 the branches in a hori- 

 zontal position, and still 

 to extend them as much 

 as possible in length, 

 the point of the branch 

 6 must be turned up," 

 as in fig. 221. "The 

 point-bud b will then 

 form nearly as strong a 

 shoot as if the branch 

 had been fixed in a 

 vertical position ; and 

 the bud at a, from its 

 vertical position, and 

 being nearest the root, 

 will take a large share 

 of sap, and form a strong shoot also ; if there- 

 fore it be desired to direct the full supply of the 

 sap to the point-bud b, and from that to form 



the strong- 

 Fig. 221. est shoot the 

 root will 

 5 supply, the 

 a y buds at a, 

 with all inter- 

 vening buds, 

 must be re- 

 MwNvi.,- moved: when 

 havward's aiode OF PEACH-TRAINING, all interven- 

 ing buds are 

 removed, as habit soon reconciles a plant to the 

 position of its trunk, its sap will be passed with 



3 E 



HAVWARD'S MODE OF 

 PEACH -TRAINING. 



Fig. 220. 



HAYVVARD S MODE OF 

 PEACH -TRAINING. 



