460 THE PEACH GARDENS OF MONTRETJIL. 



Fig. 277. 



a disturbance all along the upper edge of the brancli when 

 constant watchfulness of training is not pursued. Besides,, if 

 several trees happen to die, and the only trees available 

 to replace them are those from the nursery, the place they 

 will occupy on the wall will be shaded by the branches of the 

 old trees, and the young ones will be injured for want 

 of light and air. As I have already said, the U form is 

 the most easy to train, the most graceful to the eye, and 

 more prolific than the oblique.''-' I have in many parts 

 of France seen fine results obtained by trees grown on 

 this simple principle. Occasionally the points of trees 



trained in the U and double U 

 forms are united by grafting by 

 approach. This does not in 

 their case seem to be any ad- 

 vantage. 



The reason why the Peach 

 is so successfally cultivated at 

 Montreuil is, that the cul- 

 tivators pay thorough and con- 

 stant attention to its wants, 

 with which a life-long experience 

 has made them familiar. The 

 trees are at all times well at- 

 tended to. I believe that quite 

 as good and as certain results 



Peach trained in the Double U form, 



with the points of the branches f , ~^ 

 united by grafting. couid DC attamed With the 



Peach in many of the southern 

 parts of England and Ireland, particularly if its culture 

 were made a speciality of, as it is in France. When 

 cultivators devote themselves entirely to a subject, they 

 soon learn all its wants, and moreover, attend to them 

 at the right moment — a great point. But it is very diffe- 

 rent with private gardeners generally, whose hands are 

 very full of other matters in spring and early summer, a 

 time when the Peach requires much attention ; the 

 result being that it is too often neglected for a week or two 

 at that season, with a consequent loss of health to the trees. 

 There does not seem much help for this in private gardens, 



