MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES, &c. 23 



finger and thumb : if you suffer them to grow strong, they 

 will hurt the fruit-bearing shoot. 



Of Pruning and Training old Peach'Trees, 



When the trees run up too high and thin, \See Plate 3, 

 Fig* 3.] the best way is to cut them as far back as you can 

 find any young shoots or buds*. You must always leave some 

 young shoots or buds on peach-trees, otherwise you endan- 

 ger the life of them. Never head them as you would Apri- 

 cot, Apple, or Pear-trees. If you cut or head down Peach- 

 trees without attending to the caution given above, you 

 run a great risk of killing them j but if there are a few 

 young shoots, the top may With safety be cut off, just a- 

 bove them, as they will lead the sap up and produce strong 

 branches, which should be topped as you would do a young 

 tree. 



It is more difficult to procure new wood from old Peach- 

 trees than from any other, except Nectarines. I have often 

 made incisions in the old branches, about the joint, cutting 

 out a piece from one to three inches according to the size of 

 the branches. [See Plate 11, Fig. 2^] This should be done 

 in several places of the tree, to furnish it with young wood ; 

 always rounding the edges where the incision is made which 

 should be above the joint, and as near to it as may be. 

 The operation should be performed in the month of April, 

 (May, for America) but never cut off the old branches, un- 

 less you perceive some young shoots making their appear- 

 ance. When they are about three or four inches long, cut 

 olf the old branch, which will cause the fresh young wood 

 to make a rapid progress the first summer, and you will have 

 fine fruit on them the following year. 



Always use the composition where you cut off old bran- 

 ches ; observing to round the edges, and cut out the canker 

 which you find in the old bark where the branch was ampu- 

 tated. 



In peaches, the canker is of a brown colour ; and in the 

 bark, it appears in small specks or dots, as if made with a pen. 

 All these should be cut out clean ; for if any part of the can- 

 ker remain, it will affect the new wood as it begins to grow* 



* This plate represents a tree against a wall, but the observations apply- 

 equally to a standard-tree. Whenever a standard shoots up high, without 

 having a number of side-shoots, to form a proportionate head, it should be 

 cut down in the manner above described. This remark applies to trees that 

 have already been suffered to run up too high and thin. Trees hereafter , 

 planted will not, of course, be permitted so tQ do. 



