LONG PEACH SHOOTS. 



49 



and there is much risk of a very strong* wood shoot 

 pushing vertically. A portion of the winter pru- 

 ning should, therefore, be left for February ; many 

 shoots about which the primer had not made up 

 his mind may then be regulated, not to mention 

 the numerous unavoidable accidents which occur 

 during a whole season, and disorder all our calcu- 

 lations. 



7. Above all, let the amateur avoid considerable 

 amputations of his Peach trees. When he has to 

 perform one, let him cut cleanly and as close as 

 he can to the base of the ramification. 



No. 8. — Long Peach Shoots. 



Hardly any matter is of such importance in Peach- 

 pruning* as a right knowledge of the distinctive 

 characters of the shoots. That they differ widely 

 is certain, therefore any instruction on this point, 

 must be founded on some common principles, 

 before it can be of real value. Even the practised 

 pruner is instinctively guided by certain well- 

 established rules, in his selection or rejection of the 

 coming season's wood, but these rules are the 

 result of longer experience than usually happens 

 to the amateur. The almost entire absence of any 

 classification of Peach shoots in the works of the 

 older writers was an essential defect, and rendered 



D 



