496 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



of placing it in the direction in which it would 

 be placed in ordinary cases, he must lay it in 

 wherever there is wall space convenient to the 

 part from whence the shoot arises, and this 

 without regard to whether the shoot is placed 

 in a direction towards the root or top, and also 

 to whether it is placed vertically or pendulous- 

 ly ; the chief care being to cover the wall, as 

 well as the naked branches which, under such 

 circumstances, are almost sure to present them- 

 selves. It must be admitted that excellent 

 crops are thus produced ; but the trees will 

 ever want that trim orderly appearance which 

 those present which may be trained upon any 

 of the foregoing principles. One important 

 point in peach-pruning in Britain is the yearly 

 shortening of the young wood, for without such 

 a precaution in such a climate the tree would 

 cease to exist in vigour for any length of time. 

 The above may be considered the leading fea- 

 tures of peach pruning and training as practised 

 in Britain. 



American practice. — How strange it may ap- 

 pear to us, who take such trouble with our 

 peach trees, to read in Downing's " Fruits and 

 Fruit Trees of America," — " It has always been 

 the prevailing doctrine in this country that the 

 peach requires no pruning. It has been allowed 

 to grow, to bear heavy crops, and to die pretty 

 much in its own way." The bad effects of this 

 neglect have been discovered, and although most 

 of their peach trees are grown in open orchard's 

 as our apples are, experience has led the most 

 enlightened American cultivators to adopt prun- 

 ing upon the shortening-in principle, and the 

 advantage of this alteration has become suffi- 

 ciently obvious. u At the end of February," 

 says Downing, "or as early in the spring as 

 may be, we commence pruning. This con- 

 sists only of shortening-in, — i. e., cutting off 

 half the last year's growth over the whole out- 

 side of the head of the tree, and also upon the 

 inner branches. By reducing the young wood 

 one-half, we at the same moment reduce the 

 coming crop one-half in number ; the remaining 

 half, receiving all the sustenance of the tree, are 

 of double the size." Training the peach against 

 walls or espaliers is but little practised in 

 America, the climate being quite sufficient to 

 ripen the fruit without artificial assistance. In 

 the neighbourhood of Boston, espalier training 

 is occasionally practised, and in the colder parts, 

 such as New England, it is followed with great 

 advantage. Mr Downing, one of the highest 

 pomological authorities in America, strongly 

 urged peach-pruning on the attention of his 

 countrymen, and the best cultivators there are 

 now following his judicious directions. 



French practice. — The climate of France, like 

 that of America, is extremely favourable for the 

 cultivation of the peach. They, however, do 

 not ripen so well on standards as they do in the 

 latter country ; but, in consequence of their 

 warm summers, they attain very great perfec- 

 tion, often on espaliers, but always on walls, and 

 those even of the very humblest description, as 

 those at Montreuil, where the finest peaches in 

 Europe are produced. From these circum- 

 stances it will readily appear that much less 



pains is taken of the peach tree by the French 

 gardeners than by the English, so far as prun- 

 ing and training are concerned. In some few 

 particulars of culture, however, they differ from 

 us, — as, for instance, using the almond as a stock 

 for the peach, which they find to answer better 

 in the light dry soil of Montreuil than any 

 other; but they at the same time give a prefer- 

 ence to the plum stock where the soil is strong 

 and of a rich black humus. The mode of train- 

 ing in general adopted is a species of open-fan 

 training, and great care is taken to elevate the 

 points of the weaker branches, and to depress 

 those that are too strong. In the general or 

 winter pruning, all shoots that show fruit-buds 

 only are cut clean away. " This will appear," 

 Dr Neill observes (in "Horticultural Tour,") 

 " absurd to any one not a horticulturist ; but if 

 such branches do exist, their excision is quite 

 prudent ; for wood-buds, or shoots, are like 

 pumps to draw sap toward the branchlets, and, 

 if they be wanting, the blossom on the twig 

 commonly fails to set ; or if the fruit form, it 

 soon falls off, or at all events is deficient in size 

 and flavour." From four to eight flower-buds 

 are left on each twig, according to its strength, 

 much in the same way as with ourselves. 



The Montreuil mode of training is a modifi- 

 cation of the open-fan manner, in which two 

 main branches are laid in to the right and left 

 of the centre at an angle of 45° ; the wall is 

 afterwards covered with subordinate branches 

 from these, and the best laterals they produce. 

 The great advantage of this mode of training 

 is, that, whenever the wall gets naked below, it 

 can be covered by bringing down the two main 

 branches and their subordinates. Lelieur de- 

 scribes an important modification of this mode 

 of trainiug by Dumoutier; and M. F. Malot, a 

 Montreuil peach-grower, has also improved 

 upon it, by first covering the lower portion of 

 the wall, by preventing any shoots being pro- 

 duced from the upper sides of the two main 

 branches till the part of the wall below them is 

 covered. Upon the whole, we have little faith 

 in French training, and cannot refer to a wall of 

 peach trees we ever saw approaching mediocrity. 

 In such a climate the peach will grow without 

 much care ; and wherever that is the case, the 

 less restraint that the branches are subjected to 

 the better. 



A mode of training the peach in the open 

 air, somewhat approximating to the Montreuil 

 system, has been recommended by Professor 

 Du Breuil. It consists of training two main 

 branches laid in to the right and to the left of 

 the stem, and much about the same angle as 

 in that referred to, as are also the branches 

 from the under side of these ; but the branches 

 for filling the centre are reversed till they 

 are brought to an angle of 45°, thus forming 

 right angles with the branches from which 

 they proceed. With the view to maintain a 

 proper balance of force in the flow of the sap, 

 and to lessen the necessity for using the knife, 

 all the branches occupying the centre of the 

 tree are arranged nearly to one angle of eleva- 

 tion (45°), while those produced on the under 

 side of the main branches have an elevation of 



