198 



EEPORT ON THE 



left to their natural growth. The trees illustrating the Mont- 

 reuil mode of training the Peach are well managed ; but here, 

 as elsewhere, the difficulty of repressing over-luxuriance in the 

 centre, whilst the lower horizontally inclined branches become 

 weak, is apparent. 



A Peach-tree was trained with a central upright stem, from 

 which the branches are trained horizontally, with bearing shoots 

 inclined forwards on the upper side only of the horizontals. In 

 another tree the branches likewise proceed from a single 

 upright stem, but are wider apart, so as to admit of bearing 

 shoots being laid in from both the upper and under sides of 

 the branches ; the main branches having an elevation of about 

 20°. This mode admits of the wall being covered sooner 

 than by the preceding. At present the trees are doing very 

 well, but they are apparently not above six years old, scarcely 

 covering the wall, which is about ten feet high. In this Society's 

 Garden, where the soil is much richer, trees of Peaches and 

 Nectarines trained on the above principle, namely, with branches 

 proceeding from a single upright stem, did not succeed ; the sap 

 flowed with too great force into the vertical stem, and the 

 horizontally inclined branches had, on the other hand, a great 

 tendency to die off. 



In other specimens of training, modifications of the fan method 

 were exhibited. In that called Efaentail a la Dumoutier, ou a 

 la Franeaise, the stem is made to form two ramifications, and 

 each of these is subdivided into two, within a few inches of 

 their bases. After these have grown to nearly their full extent, 

 two more shoots are allowed to push from near their bases ; and, 

 by cutting back, these produce others to furnish the centre of 

 the tree ; but this leads to the objectionable necessity of having 

 there two vertical and nearly parallel branches ; which, although 

 among the last produced, would, in many cases, be apt to be- 

 come too strong, from being in the direction of the strongest 

 flow of sap. 



The great inconvenience attending the Montreuil mode of 

 training will be readily understood by any one who has observed 

 with what force the sap flows into an upright shoot, compared 

 with one in a horizontal position ; all other circumstances being 

 the same. Now, if two lines be drawn like a V, each at an 

 elevation of 45°, representing the two main branches {branches 

 meres), and if from either side of each of these other lines are 

 drawm, forming angles of 45° with them, it is evident that those 

 on the under side will have a horizontal position, and those on 

 the upper side will be quite perpendicular. These lines give 

 the relative positions of the branches of a tree trained according 

 to the Montreuil system, with the exception that those produced 



