THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 1 69 



spider, and syringing keeps that pest at bay ; and it also 

 likes moisture about its foliage. The morning syring- 

 ing should always be early, so that rapid evaporation 

 does not take place as ventilation is increased. Clear 

 soot-water — that is, water in which dry fresh soot has 

 been mixed and allowed to stand and become clear — 

 may be applied occasionally with the engine or syringe 

 to advantage. The ammonia from the soot gives a dark 

 healthy hue to the foliage. 



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 

 increase 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 

 impregnate 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 pro- 

 duce it more sparingly. 



I do not think that setting depends so much on 

 either dryness or moisture as on a circulation of warm 

 air, which causes the pollen to come to proper matur- 

 ity. 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 



