308 CULTURE OF PEACHES AND NECTARINES ON THE OPEN WALL. 
which ripen their wood as thoroughly every year as trees in Peach-houses ; and as for gum, 
it is seldom or ever seen : neither does a single shoot ever perish at the point by this system 
of culture. I must, however, whilst on this part of the subject, name what I consider another 
adjunct of good culture, viz., a judicious course of stopping. My practice is to pinch or 
stop all through the summer, wherever any necessity exists, commencing with the 
“ gourmands,” or over-gross young shoots, in the end of May, and continuing to stop 
almost weekly some or other, of the coarser shoots, commencing chiefly with the upper 
portions of the tree, and working downwards ; the lower, and inferior or weak portions, I 
leave growing until the last. This is the true way to equalise the sap, which some think 
to accomplish by winter pruning and fanciful forms of training, both which involve a con- 
siderable amount of labour, and generally end in disappointment. 
A person who had not fully considered the question of the ripening of the wood, would 
be astonished at beholding the vast difference existing, in the months of September or 
October, between a Peach planted in very deep and very rich soil, and one placed under 
the control here pointed out; the one still rambling away, and producing numberless 
axillary shoots, and appearing as though it wanted two months more of summer ; the other 
arrived at a total cessation of growth, and, although less robust, possessing already plump 
buds on firm, short-jointed wood. The difference, moreover, becomes again manifest 
beneath the knife of the pruner, the one cutting like our hard-wooded trees, the other 
much like a Raspberry cane. 
One of the most important features connected with this mode of culture (and to which 
I would respectfully direct the attention of the peach grower), is the perfect control under 
which trees thus circumstanced are placed, together with the systematic mode of cropping 
on the borders, and which becomes quite compatible with a perfect system of tree culture. 
In thus appropriating a border to Peaches or other trees on the platform mode, I 
always devote at least four feet next the wall to what I term “ root culture ; ” that is to 
say, such space belongs exclusively to the fruit-tree roots, and may either remain idle, or 
receive top-dressings or mulchings, as the case may require. As a general principle, 
however, in small gardens, I would advise some compromise ; one yard would suffice, 
avoiding all cropping opposite the platforms or station. Vegetables, therefore, may be 
cropped, and the ground dug deep for the first two years after planting, to within a yard of 
the wall ; and my advice and practice is, that about six inches be relinquished every year 
afterwards, until a clear space of five feet be left next the wall ; this, of course, would occur 
in four years after planting, by which period the trees would be nearly covering the spaces 
allotted to them, and would then require the whole volume of soil between the wall and 
the limits assigned, for their surface-roots to spread and ramify in. 
The rest of the border may henceforth be dug deep and cropped to within this distance, 
for it is no injury to the trees to cut away what fibres extend beyond this line ; and thus 
the root culture of the trees and vegetable cropping may be made compatible, and both 
carried out in the utmost perfection. 
This five feet will present ample space to carry out a top-dressing, which I ought to 
have stated before, is a necessary adjunct of this system. I need scarcely remark here, 
that it is one thing to mix dung or other gross manures with the volume of the soil, and 
another to place a coating on the surface of the border annually; or, in other words, it is 
one thing to gorge a tree whether in want or not, and another to present food as its needs 
require. 
By the mode of planting here recommended, it will be found that the trees, after being 
planted some four or five years, will both require and enjoy a top-dressing every June or 
July, as the case may be. 
My practice is to permit the ground to become fairly warmed with solar heat before 
applying my annual coating or top-dressing. I moreover suffer the ground to become 
somewhat dry, and if it cracks slightly, so much the better ; for by this I am assured the 
atmosphere has penetrated the whole volume freely. Now this is generally the case a 
little before the fruit commence their last swelling — say in the early part of July. It may 
here be remarked, however, that when the case is very severe, top-dressing must be applied 
