180 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



be thoroughly ripened before the end of the season. 

 Hence the importance of using fleet, and what might 

 be called rather poor, than rich borders. 



Having made the borders, one or several months 

 previously, as described by Mr. Coleman, and 

 allowed the border time to settle down, the best 

 time to plant Peaches in the open air is from the 

 middle to the end of October. Especially is this 

 early planting important when the trees are near 

 at hand, or in the same garden. It is so much 

 of an advantage, indeed, to have the trees thus on 

 the spot beforehand, that all who intend to grow 

 Peaches to any large extent should order in their 

 trees the year before, and plant them out in the 

 open, or against any blank spaces of fence or wall. 

 Here they might be moulded into form, and 

 even encouraged to make a moderate growth. In 

 the following season they might be removed into 

 properly prepared borders, placed in their permanent 

 quarters, and if transplanted early, and with ordi- 

 nary 'care, they will gain much, and lose nothing, by 

 their second removal. 



Distance Apart. — This may vary from six feet to 

 twenty, according to the form and size the future 

 trees are to grow into. The first is best for cordons, 

 the second a good distance for full- sized fan-shaped 

 trees. But as it is well to have sufficient root-force, 

 fan-shaped trees may be planted as close as ten to 

 fifteen feet asunder ; and in practice these distances 

 are reduced to one-half, by placing between each per- 

 manent tree a rider, or taller-stemed tree, to furnish 

 the top of the wall, while the dwarf, as it is called, 

 is more gradually occupying its allotted space below. 

 Generally, too, the lower the wall the closer the 

 trees are placed to each other. For example, on a 

 wall seven feet high, nine feet would be sufficient 

 distance ; but on a wall fourteen feet high, eighteen 

 feet might prove all too close. Largish trees are 

 also the most fit for open-air culture ; they seem 

 hardier and more fertile than cordons, or very small 

 trees. These are not, in fact, to be recommended 

 unless in very warm localities. 



Two points are essential to success — these are 

 maiden trees and maiden soils. To plant trees, and 

 grow them into size before planting, is all very well, 

 and may save a year or more in the furnishing of 

 the wall ; but for amateurs to purchase trained trees 

 from the nursery, and have them transported, 

 perhaps, for several hundred miles, is almost to 

 invite failure. Maiden soils are still more vital to 

 success than maiden trees. Soils soon get Peach 

 and Nectarine sick, and on no account should young 

 trees ever be planted in the old soil on the old 

 borders. As it is mostly needful to grow Peaches on 

 the same walls, the soil and drainage should be 

 excavated to the depth of a yard, the drainage 



cleansed, re-laid, and fresh loam, or earth, substituted 

 for the old soil of the Peach border. 



Depth to Plant. — The Peach, more than most trees, 

 is impatient of having its collar soil-logged, hence on 

 no account should the original earth-line on the stem 

 be lowered. The roots also thrive best within a few 

 inches of the surface, and should never be covered 

 over with more than three to four inches of soil. 

 Over this they should have two or three inches of 

 some porous material, such as cocoa-fibre refuse, 

 half-decomposed manure, or litter, to exclude the 

 frost from the roots during winter. 



As trees are cheap, and time and wall-space valu- 

 able, it is good practice to plant two or more tem- 

 porary trees between each two permanent ones, as 

 the first crop off the latter will more than pay for 

 them. These may be cut away as the others grow, 

 and finally give place to larger trees. 



After planting the trees should be loosely and 

 roughly tied to stakes. Nothing can well be more 

 injurious than the usual practice of tacking them 

 up against walls when first planted. The earth ne- 

 cessarily subsides, carries the tree with it, and these 

 being made fast to the solid wall, the roots are 

 strained or torn off in consequence. Eoots and 

 tops should be left intact at planting, the only 

 pruning allowable being the removal of any badly 

 bruised or broken parts. Unless the soil is abnor- 

 mally dry, or very dry weather ensues, no water 

 should be given. In the autumn, in the open air, any 

 soil or site suitable for the growth of Peaches will te 

 sufficiently moist to foster the development of new 

 roots. 



Pruning and Training. — Little need be added 

 to what has been so fully described in The Peach and 

 Nectarine under Glass. The time of pruning may 

 need to be altered, but its principles and practice are 

 very much the same outside and in. There is, how- 

 ever, this very wide and broad distinction. The out- 

 of-door pruning of the Peach is largely controlled by 

 climate ; its pruning in-doors is almost independent 

 of it. In pruning out of doors we must ask how 

 much wood the climate is likely to ripen within a 

 given time. 



As the science of cultivation becomes more perfect, 

 pruning becomes more continuous ; it is less severe 

 and more frequent, and consequently more difficult 

 than it used to be. The distinction between the winter 

 and summer pruning of the Peach is still preserved, 

 but that is nearly all that modern pruning retains 

 in common with the older methods. The time 

 of winter pruning is now very generally delayed 

 till March, instead of being completed at the fall 

 of the leaf, in October or November, and it is not 

 carried to anything like the same extent, only the 



