PEACH-TREE. 



233 



of fire or glass, that high temperature in which the peach 

 delights, we must recur, first, to the use of walls, which, 

 besides protecting the tree from high and cold winds, con- 

 centrate the rays of the sun on its stem and branches, and 

 on the earth which surrounds and nourishes its roots ; sec- 

 ond, to the amelioration of the soil, by giving to it both 

 warmth and dryness, should it be deficient in these quali- 

 ties ; and, third, to the mode of training, which exposes to 

 the light the greatest surface of leaf in the shortest space 

 of time, and, consequently, best promotes an equal distribu- 

 tion of the sap. For accomplishing these three objects, 

 the rules are, to construct your walls of stone, or brick, or 

 wood, and of a height from twelve to fifteen feet; to lay 

 out on the eastern and southern sides a border ten feet 

 wide, worked to the depth of three feet, and manured w^ith a 

 mixture of ashes and peat, or bog earth ; to plant in this (two 

 and a half feet distant from the wall) your young trees, 

 furnished v*'ith two leading branches, and presenting a figure 

 not unlike the letter Y ; to bring down those branches to a 

 position nearly horizontal, and subsequently to train them 

 upwards, parallel to each other, as high as the top of the 

 wall, and directly against its side, to which, throughout 

 their whole length, they are to be fastened by woollen 

 straps ; and, lastly, to encourage side shoots from these 

 leaders, so as to fill up with bearing wood the intermeditate 

 space between them, and such exterior space on the wall 

 as may be thought proper and practicable. To this form 

 is given the technical name of the wavy or curvilineal fan; 

 XTid it is obvious, that, in preserving, as well as producing 

 it, the use of the knife cannot be dispensed with. Be care- 

 ful, therefore, in May and June, and, occasionally, in the 

 succeeding months, to remove water-shoots, and all ill- 

 placed, redundant and diseased buds ; and, again, at the 

 fall of the leaf, to cut away, with a sharp knife, and close 

 to the branches on which they grow^, such new shoots as 

 will not readily accommodate themselves to your design, or 

 as may be unnecessary to it, and also all such old wood as 

 may be useless or troublesome. 



" The general rules for thinning leaves and fruit must be 

 carefully observed in the treatment of peach-trees and nec- 

 tarines, as they are known to have an uncommon degree of 

 proneness to overbearing, and as the discipline v»^e recom- 

 mend will, besides giving an improved fruit, tend directly 

 and greatly to fortify the trees against the attacks of their 

 20* 



