j4<J the practical gardener. {Jan, 



from each other is not important; they may be sometimes 

 pretty close and at others more distant, but this must be re- 

 gulated by the quantity and position of the young wood that 

 may be upon them. These, in healthy and well-regulated 

 trees, should be laid in at the distance of from six to nine 

 inches apart from each other. It is the regular management 

 of the young shoots, more than of the old ones, that produce 

 health and beauty in a peach or nectarine-tree, and by having 

 a regular supply of young wood in all parts of the tree, a 

 regular crop of fruit will follow. To produce this regular sup- 

 ply of young wood, it is necessary to have recourse to shorten- 

 ing the branches of the preceding year, more or less, accordmg 

 to their size, the state of the tree, and other circumstances. 

 All those which are hurt by frost, and not sufficiently ripened 

 to their extremities, or bruised by accident, cankered or mil- 

 dewed, should be shortened ; and also all those from which it 

 is wished to procure a supply of other shoots, either to fill a 

 vacancy, or for the extension of the tree. The lengths to 

 which they should be shortened, depend also on a variety ol 

 circumstances, such as their strength or debility ; the more 

 strong and luxuriant may be shortened to one-third of their 

 length, and sometimes, when very strong, and the border in 

 good state, to be shortened only a little. In all cases, where 

 shortening is necessary, care must be taken to cut them at a 

 wood-bud, and not at a flower-bud, which may be distin- 

 guished in late pruning more readily than in early or autumn 

 pruning, by the flower-buds being always bold, round, short, 

 and turgid, while the others are rather long and flattish, and 

 generally terminating in a sharp point. It very frequently 

 happens that a wood-bud is placed between two flower-buds, 

 particularly on strong growing healthy trees ; and where this 

 is the case, shortening may be safely performed at such buds, 

 observing to cut at a little distance above them, for fear of 

 injuring either of the buds, but particularly the wood-bud. 



The principle of shortening these trees is to keep a supply 

 of such shoots as are to produce future crops, and fill the 

 space allotted to each tree. While trees are young, this short- 

 ening of their extreme shoots is of the utmost consequence, 

 particularly towards the bottom and middle of the tree ; for if 



