MONTREUIL. 429 



and she made various inquiries about England and Scot- 

 land, evincing a more correct knowledge of the geography 

 of these countries, and of their principal productions, than 

 we had found in persons whose opportunities might justly 

 be considered as greater. 



We found John Mozard to be an old, but still an active 

 man, full of horticultural zeal, and happy to exhibit his 

 garden and his peach-trees to strangers. He is, we be- 

 lieve, the veritable successor of Peter Pepin, distinguish- 

 ed as having been, for half a century, from about 1720 

 to 1770, the most extensive and successful cultivator of 

 peaches for the Paris market. Mr Mozard's peach-trees 

 are evidently better managed than those in the garden 

 which we first visited, and we have reason to believe that 

 they afford a fair, if not a favourable, specimen of the cul- 

 ture at Montreuil. We remarked that here the stocks are 

 uniformly of almond-tree ; while, in Britain, we almost ex- 

 clusively employ plum-stocks. This drew some remarks 

 from Mozard. He mentioned, that in dry soils, such as 

 that at Montreuil, almond stocks answer best, but that where 

 the soil is strong and black, or a Itamus, he would give the 

 preference to plum-stocks. A damp or wet subsoil he re- 

 gards as peculiarly unfavourable for peach-trees. If the 

 tree vegetates strongly, but is subject to gum, transplant- 

 ing is the remedy resorted to at Montreuil. When a tree 

 gets sick, an upright branch is allowed to rise from the 

 stock ; this is treated as a new stem, a peach-bud being 

 introduced upon it, to supplant the tree which threatens 

 decay. 



Mozard's mode of training and managing young peach- 

 trees, from the first year, may here be slightly noticed. In 

 the course of the winter season, he cuts over the young tree 

 about half a foot above the graft, leaving four or five buds, 

 to produce as many branches. In July following, he cuts 

 out, close to the main stem, all oilier branches than those 



