THE GARDENER. 



57 



trees do not thrive, nor does the fruit, under such cir- 

 cumstances, acquire flavour; mildew makes its ap- 

 pearance, and no application will effectually cure it 

 without inflicting a material injury on the foliage. The 

 best remedy for mildew is to take up the tree care- 

 fully in autumn, renew the soil, and replant the tree, 

 spreading the roots near the surface. When peach- 

 trees are young, they generally grow very luxuriantly ; 

 and if dung be abundantly incorporated with the soil, 

 disease is almost certain to manifest itself by the exu- 

 dation of gum. It is therefore advisable to defer the 

 application of manure till the trees begin to bear fruit, 

 and then to apply it only as a top-dressing, so as to 

 maintain a vigorous but not an over-luxuriant state of 

 growth, and to retain the new roots near the warm 

 surface of the soil. 



Various modes of training the peach have been 

 adopted, with different degrees of success. That of 

 course has proved the best which admits of the most 

 equal distribution of sap throughout the respective 

 branches, and likewise the production of a sufficient 

 number of well-placed shoots for replacing those that 

 have once borne fruit, the shoots being only useful for 

 such purpose in the season immediately following that 

 in which they are produced. The fan method, and a 

 modification of it called Seymour's training, are most 

 in conformity with the above principles, A common 

 error in the fan method is that of disposing a few of 

 the first-produced branches so as to represent equi- 

 distant radii ; the consequences of such disposition are 

 an excessive degree of vigour in the central and most 

 upright, but at the same time those inclining horizon- 

 tally become comparatively weak, linger for a few 

 years, and then die off. Their share of the sap is soon 

 appropriated by the more vertical branches, some of 

 which will assume the character of stems, and prove 

 unsuitable for producing fruit-bearing shoots. Cut- 



