THE PEACH GARDENS OE MONTREUIL. 459 



taken that the extremities are perfectly free^ so that their 

 development may not be interfered with. 



" The space to be given in planting when the soil is of the 

 best kind is about a yard to each tree^ which will leave 

 an interval of eighteen inches between each principal vertical 

 branch, thus allowing sufficient room for nailing in the sum- 

 mer shoots. When the soil is not so favourable for Peach- 

 growing, the trees can be planted 

 two yards from each other and 

 trained in the form of the double 

 U. In this case, as in the other, 

 the principal branches will be 

 eighteen inches apart. Three 

 years ago I planted on a southern 

 aspect some Peach trees in the 

 form of the single U. They yield 

 on an average one hundred 

 Peaches each every year. The 

 wall against which they are 

 trained is ten feet high, and 

 they were in full bearing the 

 third year. 



" I give the preference to this 

 form over the oblique cordon be- 

 cause, the princijDal branches be- 

 ing trained in a perfectly upright 

 position, the sap is more equally 

 divided amongst the smaller 

 shoots, and if a tree or two 

 happen to die in a fully formed 

 plantation, the place they oc- 

 cupy on the wall which thus be- 

 comes empty is not shaded by the 

 branches of the neighbouring trees. The dead trees can 

 therefore be easily replaced by young subjects from the 

 nursery. This is a great advantage for amateurs, who 

 have not always full grown trees to fill up bare spaces. 

 In the oblique form the inclined position which each 

 tree is subjected to at the time of coming into leaf, causes 



Fig. 276. 



Peacli Tree in the double TJ form. 

 One side is left unfurnished to 

 show the practice of marking 

 on the walls the outline which 

 the tree is to assume before be- 

 ginning to train it. 



