104 FRUIT GARDEN. 
succeeding as a standard in favorable situations in England 
and Ireland. But with this desirable object in view, we 
would rather see the number of the kinds diminished than 
increased ; and it would be well for the country were all 
the indifferent sorts banished from the nursery. catalogues. 
To perpetuate and multiply valuable varieties, peaches 
and nectarines are budded upon plum or almond stocks. 
For dry situations, almond stocks are preferable; and for 
damp or clayey loams, it is better to use plums. An al- 
mond budded on a plum stock may be rebudded with a ten- 
der peach, greatly to the advantage of the latter. The 
peach border should be composed of a light mellow loam, 
such as is suitable for the vine and the fig, put in as rough 
as possible, or not broken small and fine. It should be well 
drained, or rendered quite free from all stagnant water, or 
latent dampness. It need not be of great depth, perhaps 
eighteen inches; for the peach tree thrives best, and is 
most nroduatige: when the roots are near the surface of 
the ground. We believe that, in many instances, all that 
is required to remedy sickly and unfruitful trees is to bring 
up their roots within five or six inches of the surface. In 
England, nothing is a greater obstacle to success in peach 
culture than trenching the borders, and cropping them 
heavily with culinary vegetables. 
The fruit of the peach is produced on the twiggy shoots 
of the preceding year. If these be too luxuriant, they 
yield nothing but leaves ; and if too weak, they are incapa- 
ble of maturing the fruit: To furnish these, then, in suffi- 
cient abundance, and of requisite strength, is the great ob- 
ject of peach-training and pruning. All twiggy trees 
naturally fall into the fan form; and, accordingly, this has 
generally been adopted in the culture of peaches. 
We shall first, therefore, notice the old English method, 
