August is, 1881 . ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 145 
18th 
19 th 
th 
F 
Cheadle Show (two days). 
20 6h 
21st 
S 
Sun 
10th Sunday after Trinity. 
22nd 
M 
[11 A.M. 
23rd 
Tu 
Royal Horticultural Society, Fruit and Floral Committees at 
24th 
W 
Manchester International Horticultural Exhibition (four days). 
[ISnrton-on-Trent Show. 
PEACH-GROWING FOR AMATEURS. 
is to be feared that outdoor Peach-growing 
has received a great check during the last two 
‘ or three seasons, and that many have given it 
. up as a hopeless task. It is true that fruit 
has been comparatively scarce, and that many 
trees have actually succumbed to the incle¬ 
mency of the climate. Let me distinctly state,, 
however, that the evil has not been caused by the 
severity of our winters, but summer frosts, summer 
deluges, and the want of summer sun have been the 
great destroyers, more especially the weather of what should 
have been the summer of 1879. That the Peach is sufficiently 
hardy for our winters is proved by the fact that on a wall 
containing some three dozen trees not a single branch was 
injured during the last winter, although many a monarch of the 
forest which has stood the greater part of a century has been 
unable to obey the summons of spring. Lombardy Poplars 
espcciallv, which have served as landmarks for ages, may be 
seen all over this part of the country as bare as in midwinter ; 
and even the common tree Box, which I have never thought 
was a tender plant, has in one part of our grounds, situate 
near the lake called “ Half-mile Pond," lost all its lower 
growth in a line varying from 2 to 4 feet from the ground. 
There are, perhaps, fifty or sixty large plants in this situation, 
and all have their lower branches killed, while the upper part 
is unscathed. 
That there is much interest attending outdoor fruit culture 
no one will deny, and amongst outdoor fruits none will bring 
so much credit as a well-clothed and well-cropped Peach 
wall. But, unfortunately, though we have to a great extent 
disposed of toy fruit trees which were very pretty but failed 
to fill the fruit-rooms, and even banished the fan-trained and 
most of the other unscientific forms of Pear tree, our grand¬ 
fathers' notions that the Peach tree must be five years in 
making its backbones, and yet another five years in covering 
its allotted space, still linger. The consequence is, that when¬ 
ever we experience an untoward season or two, professional 
gardeners talk of discontinuing outdoor Peach-growing, and 
amateurs are afraid to commence ; and as the latter generally 
cannot afford the time to look after Peach houses, even if 
they can afford the money to build them, Peaches remain 
the luxury of the few. That this need not be so I will en¬ 
deavour to show. 
First of all throw away the old form of tree which figures 
so beautifully on paper but always fails to do so on a wall, the 
reason for which is not far to seek, its principle being wrong 
according to all our notions of phj’siology. In the standard 
works on gardening we are first lectured very properly on 
maintaining a balance between the growths, and it is shown 
clearly that elevating a branch will produce comparative 
vigour, while lowering it will check luxuriance ; but then, 
strange to say, we are recommended to spend five years in 
merely producing the outlines of a form which is the very 
opposite of all this teaching. You cannot have fan-training 
without having some branches nearly horizontal and others 
•which are nearly perpendicular. The horizontal ones, more¬ 
over, are of necessity at the lower part of the tree, where 
vigour is wanted if anywhere. As this kind of tree cannot be 
produced by fair training recourse must be had to severe 
pruning, and even this in the end will fail to regulate the 
branches, which will ever burst out here and there violently, 
like a boy with a bad temper who has had all cuts and no 
coaxes. Correction is necessary for both trees and boys, but 
the necessity for applying it in a severe form generally arises 
from some neglect of “ nipping in the bud." 
I have said that fan-training is wrong in principle, it is 
also a difficult mode of training to teach. You cannot teach 
it to a labourer be he ever so sharp under one whole season’s 
practice, and there are seven-eighths of the men brought up in 
gardens who never could be trusted to attend to fan-trained 
Peach trees had they ever so much tuition on the subject. It 
is not so with any other fruit, and it need not be so with the 
Peach if we follow either a more natural or a more scientific 
method. Some of the forms of cordon are more scientific and 
are fairly successful, but the method I have to recommend is 
the more natural. The outline is like that of the horizontal- 
trained Pear, excepting that the branches instead of being 
horizontal have an elevation of about 30°. We begin in 
November with maiden plants— i.e., plants which have made 
one simple growth from the bud about a yard long. There 
should be no difficulty in finding plants with well-ripened 
growth after such a season as the present one, and remember 
that ripened wood on a young clean stock is of far more conse¬ 
quence than strong growth. You must expect to pay for having 
them selected. Supposing ordinary maiden plants to be Is. Gd , 
selected ones are worth 2s. 6d., and if you order them now 
any good nurseryman will be pleased to select them for you 
at once, and fasten your name on them ready for removal at 
the first suitable time, whereas if the order is deferred till the 
busy season when everybody wants to be first, little customers 
especially can scarcely expect to be so well served. 
The plants as soon as they arrive are to be planted upright, 
and 4 feet apart against a south wall. The knife is not to be 
used at all the first winter unless it is to cut off a small side 
shoot or two which may have formed ; but this is not really 
necessary, and I generally leave them on and tack them to the 
wall. When the plants have made growths 2 cr 3 inches long 
in spring, which they will do in abundance, some of these 
must be selected along each side of the stem at intervals of 
about 9 or 10 inches, which must be carefully looked after and 
trained outwards with about the same slope as the roof of a 
slated house ; the other shoots where crowded may be carefully 
thinned by taking some of them off close to the stem, but 
leaving as many as there is room for to clothe the stem 
and assist circulation, merely stopping them to four or five 
leaves. The second year will see the wall nearly covered and 
bearing a few fruits ; while the third, should the season be 
No. 60 .—Vol. III., Third Series*. 
No. 1716 .—Vol. LXYI., Old Series. 
