THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
115 
which keeps up the future fabric of the tree. And what is said of 
the lowest fork (by which latter term I mean the angle necessarily 
formed by the divergence of any two branches), is equally true of 
all the other forks or angles all over the tree. The securing a nice 
young shoot annually at this point being to guarantee a lot of half- 
denuded branches, which, whatever fruit they may bear on their 
extremities, can never be perfectly satisfactory. Equal in import- 
ance to proper disbudding is the timely stopping or pinching of all 
gross shoots, which may be readily distinguished from ordinary 
wood, by their speedy tendency to produce side-spray, almost coeval 
with the extension of the growing fruit. These have (as may be 
guessed by the most inexperienced) a continual tendency to attract 
an undue proportion of the sap ; and if left unmolested, or merely 
pruned in the “ rest season,’’ they will assuredly become dangerous 
monopolists, and naked portions of walling will be the sure con- 
sequence. The best practice, therefore, is to continue pinching off 
the heads of such as long as they continue to appear. To be sure 
exceptions will arise at times, such as in the case of young trees 
required to fill up a given space as speedily as possible, and which 
have not as yet begun to hear. 
In such cases they may be allowed to ramble a foot or more in 
length during the early part of the summer; still, I am not assured 
that any very great benefits are derivable ; a little off-hand appear- 
ance is perhaps the chief. Another point of paramount importance 
is freedom from insects ; so important, indeed, that it is impossible 
to expel, and indeed difficult long to sustain the vitality of the trees, 
if such be permitted to infest them unmolested. A thorough 
syringing, two consecutive evenings, w ith tobacco water, and sulphur 
daubed as paint between the branches in April, have given me an 
immunity from the aphides and the red spider for some years. 
Blister on the leaves and guiu on the wood is, I may say, almost 
totally unknown with me, as to out-door peaches and nectarines ; 
and this I attribute in the main to a soil comparatively shallow. 
Summer disbudding and dressing is of nearly equal importance to 
our other fruits. A timely attention to this is indeed one of the 
prime secrets of successful cultivation, especially to trees on walls 
and under trellis culture. 
The artificial twisting and bending of the leaders causes them 
at all times to produce a host of spray, not eligible to the purpose in 
hand, for Nature abhors what we so much admire — systematic 
training. We try to make neat and prim bushes, Nature is ever 
attempting to make them trees. AVe are ever trying to increase 
the amount of succulency and richness of pulp, Nature merely 
aims at perfecting the seed; thus a continual warfare is waged, 
and wdien true science is brought to bear, a knowledge based on a 
thorough appreciation of the character and habits of the tree, 
its mode of growth, and its root action, together with a just 
estimate of the character of soils, man comes off the conqueror; 
but he can only continue to hold his conquest by the most in- 
domitable perseverance ! 
Apr.l. 
