192 



THE ART OP 



pushing bud (in April) ; close to the ground or as stan- 

 dards. 



'Remarks. — The best scions are obtained from shoots on 

 walls which have not been laid in, or from trees growing in the 

 open. Double or triple buds are the best. On gourmand 

 branches there are too many buds which develope badly, and 

 on slender or twiggy ones too many disposed to flowering. 

 "When it is desired to bud early, there may not be any scions 

 sufficiently matured, owing to the prolonged vegetation of the 

 peach. To provide against this it will be sufficient to pinch 

 the ends of the shoots which are to furnish the scions as soon 

 as the buds appear. If pinched sooner than this there would 

 be too many blind buds at the base, while those at the top 

 would be developed. When the interval between the period 

 of pinching and that of grafting is not long, the shoots need 

 not be pinched so closely. The hard-shelled sweet almond is 

 the favourite stock for the peach. In nurseries the almond- 

 trees are raised from kernels sown at once in autumn, or kep^ 

 in layers of sand through the winter and sown in the following 

 spring. The plants are budded when a year old. In June 

 and July the stocks are prepared by cutting away the lower 

 branches to a distance of six inches from the ground. In 

 August they are budded, and the bud is inserted on the north 

 side of the stock, where it will be less exposed to vicissitudes o£ 

 temperature. This, however, is not absolutely necessary, as the 

 peach is often propagated by double budding (see p. 145). As 

 the sowing of the kernels in a trench forces the root to bend, 

 they should be sown in such a direction that the bent part of 

 v i±e root may throw its rootlets towards the north, that is on the 

 side on which the bud will be placed. This combination will 

 afford peach-trees fit for planting against a wall exposed to 

 the sun, as the root will not come into contact with the wall, 

 find the cutting of the heel of the graft will not leave a wound 



