83 



with a few sprigs of birch tied on a stick : this gives 

 the wood a better opportunity of ripening. When 

 the trees are in an unfavourable soil and situation, 

 and have got too old to be transplantable, and make 

 wood too grassy to be fruitful, lay in the young 

 branches very thin. But, when it is considered that 

 strong branches not bearing fruit so well as weak ones 

 is not so much by reason of their vigour as of their 

 immaturity, the discrepancy will vanish : for, by their 

 being thin, and properly exposed to the action of the 

 weather, they will ripen much better ; and thereby, 

 although strong, a crop of fruit may be obtained by 

 leaving them a good length at the next spring prun- 

 ing, except where a supply of wood is wanted. By 

 their being thin, a greater quantity of young shoots, 

 for fruit-bearers in the following year, may be left at 

 the disbudding season, which will be pretty moderate. 

 When the tree has carried one or two crops of fruit 

 the point is gained, for we rarely see a fruit-bearing 

 tree too luxuriant. {Ibid. vi. 430.) 



We have rarely met with more judicious observa- 

 tions than those of Mr. Craig. It is plain to those 

 who know the habits and cultivation of the peach 

 from long experience, that such remarks would only 

 emanate from long and, we will venture to say, suc- 

 cessful practice. 



Methods of Training. — The French. — No place in 

 the world is more noted for the production of excel- 

 G 2 



