163 



summer growth, according to the ignorant school of 

 Forsyth, are in the most direct opposition to the ripen- 

 ing process, or, in other words, to the conversion 

 of gum into starch and wood. This explains why 

 peach trees grown in the open gardens of a nursery, 

 where the temperature is low, are so peculiarly sub- 

 ject to gum. But all the exposure, thin training, and 

 other expedients that can be thought of, in order to 

 place the peach tree in a situation similar to that of 

 its own Persian climate, will fail, if the roots are per- 

 mitted to suck up moisture too abundantly from the 

 soil, or if the air is so damp as to hinder the ready 

 passage of water through the leaves. In order, there- 

 fore, to secure the ripening of wood, these points also 

 are to be sedulously attended to. The border must 

 not only be at all times well drained, but in localities 

 where the air is inevitably very moist, and where, 

 therefore, the leaves are incapable of perspiring copi- 

 ously, the border must be maintained so dry that but 

 little moisture shall find its w^ay into the system of 

 the trees ; for, by so doing, the leaves, w^hich have little 

 power of action, in consequence of the dampness of the 

 air that surrounds them, will have little occasion to exer- 

 cise such power as they possess ; and thus a due balance 

 will be maintained between the perspiring powers of the 

 leaves and the absorbing powers of the roots. When 

 these things are neglected, the consequence is, that 

 cold expanding the watery matter of the unripe w^ood 



