340 
PEACH AND NECTARINE-TREES. 
(lent of a fall crop retained for maturation. And I would further in¬ 
form him, that such a circumstance is by no means rare or extraor¬ 
dinary, but a common occurrence. The number of fruit, which the 
tree referred to is usually permitted to ripen, amounts to nearly six 
hundreds, and other trees, both peaches and nectarines, are equally 
prolific according to their relative size and power. With such in¬ 
controvertible facts before us, what becomes of Mr. Cameron’s can¬ 
did opinion" about a greater quantity of bearing wood and larger 
crops of fruit P Will he again endeavour to support such an argu¬ 
ment,—or will he avow such an opinion ? Can he deny, that a tre¬ 
ble quantity of productive wood might as easily be retained as dis¬ 
pensed with on this system, provided the least necessity for its re¬ 
tention existed ? Mr. Cameron has adverted to the figure of a tree. 
No. 21, page 146, as containing twenty-eight main branches, which, 
had it been engraved according to the figure furnished for that pur¬ 
pose, would have contained two additional principal branches on the 
right hand side. Nor would it have represented several laterals as 
emanating from the main stem of the tree; or have exhibited the 
laterals of such great and irregular lengths. The figure 22 is also 
very defectively delineated. 
2. Since Mr. Cameron cannot imagine the reason of the fruit be¬ 
ing larger on Mr. Seymour’s system, I will endeavour at a future 
time to supply it at length, for certainly other reasons and aids to 
swell and improve the fruit appertain to Mr. Seymour’s system, 
which are denied to every other plan of training. 
That this is a new broached doctrine, I am perfectly aware, and 
therefore intend at some future period to establish its truth. One 
leading cause why the fruit are larger, and consequently better fla¬ 
voured on Mr. Seymour’s, than on the old fan system, is, that a 
multitude of unnecessary branches are dispensed with, each of which, 
if suffered to remain, would devour a portion of that exhilirating sap, 
which is the common food of wood, leaf, and fruit; combining also 
with the judicious mode of stopping the terminal shoots on the first 
thinning of the fruit, which on early walls will occur about the be¬ 
ginning of May. The terminal shoots being stopped, nearly ti e 
whole resourse of the tree, its sap, is consequently propelled to the 
fruit, which is proved to demonstration by the amazing swell of the 
fruit, during the next successive fourteen days. At the period of 
stoning it will frequently exhibit as large a size as those on the old 
fan system have attained, when in a state called their maturity. I 
have in page 146, condemned the old fan system as founded upon 
erroneous principles; and, notwithstanding the experience of Mr. 
