34 



GLEANINGS ON IIOUTICULTURE. 



Young wood of the peach-tree is liable to be covered with 

 black spots or blotches, which are produced by over-rich soil. 

 Cut the blemishes out with a knife in March, and by Septem- 

 ber the wounds will be healed. Clear off the rich mould 

 entirely from the roots, and replace it by light loam, scourings of 

 ditches or roarf-.scra^w^.s-, old mortar-rubbish, leaf-mould, and turf 

 from an old pasture, chopped up and well mixed together. 



Fruit, when ripe, may be preserved from wasps and flies by 

 honied bottles, laid in behind the leaves and examined every 

 morning; also by means of two hand-glasses, one placed over 

 the other, the lower one having a small hole at the top and 

 raised upon bricks ; a plate containing honey or brown sugar, 

 boiled to a syrup with beer, being placed beneath it to attract 

 them, they will immediately rise after feasting, and find their 

 way into the upper glass, through the small hole, never to re- 

 turn : a slight squib of brimstone mercifully gives them their 

 " quietus." Earwigs may be easily caught by the beetle-trap, 

 reeds or beanstalks, placed in favourable situations about each 

 tree, and often examined. 



Always gather peaches a few days before the fruit is required 

 for table, and before it is dead-ripe. A dry, airy shelf in the 

 green-house or fruit-room is the most appropriate place to con- 

 sign it to. Peach-trees force well under glass, and their ripen- 

 ing may be accelerated in the open air, by being protected 

 by means of old shop-windows ; or, when planted against a 

 hot wall, by the application of gentle fires in cold moist weather 

 in August and September. This will ripen the wood ; but 

 no attempt should ever be made to accelerate the blossoms early 

 in Spring, as they are almost certain to be cut off unless protected 

 with old windows, &c., as above mentioned. 



Nectarines suffer much from the wood-louse ; it will therefore 

 be necessary to hang up a number of bundles of bean-stalks 

 about them. No tree suffers more from too hasty disbudding 

 than either the peach or nectarine ; indeed, they are exceedingly 

 sensitive to any injury. And this may arise from want of solidity 

 in their wood, which is certainly of a very porous character, and 

 may contain, in our cold climate, a much less amount of the 

 cambium, or, as we may call it, " life-blood," of vegetation than 

 our hardier fruits. A very severe disbudding, performed at once, 

 seems to paralyze the whole energies of the trees for awhile, or 

 until an increased amount of foliage is produced through the 

 extension of the growing shoots. Disbudding, therefore, Ought 



