THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 
145 
one side of the tree than on the other. Although the fan admits or* 
the most equal distribution of sap, yet all branches do not receive 
the same amount of it ; those most vertical receive a greater supply 
than those below them, therefore crop according to the position of 
the branches. The most vertical shoots should carry the most fruit. 
Disbudding a summer pruning should be gradually persevered in 
until there remained only as much wood as was necessary for the 
winter pruning. This will allow the leaves and shoots the free 
benefit of sun and air. In winter the trees should be unnailed, 
to retard the flowering period as much as possible. Pruning in 
severe frosty weather should be avoided, and wherever shortening 
was required I would cut at a wood bud. After this the shoots 
should be again nailed to the wall. 
A short time before the blooms expand, the trees should receive 
some protection. If the fruit sets in greater numbers than is required, 
a portion should now and then be removed, until only about a tenth 
more remained than would be necessary for the crop. The latter are 
left as a guard against accidents. I have noticed that the finest 
fruit is situated at the base of the young shoots, which must be 
pinched at about six inches beyond it ; if this is not done the organic 
matter that should go to the increase of the fruit will be appro- 
priated by the shoot. I would dispense with cropping the borders 
as much as possible, and on no account would I have borders dug 
with spades, as the most valuable roots belonging to a tree are those 
nearest the surface, and such roots would be destroyed. All plants 
exhaust soils, therefore it will become necessary to manure the 
border with thoroughly decomposed manures when the trees have 
attained a good bearing state; the most troublesome pests to which 
Peach trees are subject are green-fly and mildew ; the. former may 
easily be destroyed by syringing with tobacco-water, after the rate 
of two ounces to the gallon, and the latter can be got rid of by 
dusting with sulphur while the trees are wet with dew. 
WILD FLOWERS OF MAT. 
HAT particular flower was in the minds of those who 
contributed somewhat to the founding of the great 
Americau republic by naming a ship that afterwards 
became famous, the “ May Flower ? ” A pretty query 
that, perhaps, for the speculative, but a narrow one, for 
doubtless if we are to select a flower and call it the May flower with 
emphasis, it must be either the buttercup or the hawthorn. These 
are pre-eminently flowers of May. It would seem as if we had been 
transported unawares to some other planet if we did not see either 
of them in the course of the merry month. “ This is indeedthe “merry 
month ” when bees from flower to flower do hum,” and the gold of 
the meadows and the snow of the hedge-rows help materially in the 
excitement of its merriment. The fields are full of buttercups, and 
May. 1 0 
