676 
ON TEACH AND NECTARINE TREES. 
Ill the autumn, or in the winter season, we proceed to cut away all 
wood which has produced fruit, together with all that was intended to 
produce fruit, and train down the young lateral shoot to take its place 
for production the next forthcoming season, cut to the length of from 
twelve to twenty inches, according to the distance of the next lateral 
shoot on the main branch. 
Early in the year we make a strong solution of soft soap, to which 
we add from two to three pounds of flour of sulphur, and propel it 
upon the trees with the force of the garden engine, the tenacious qua¬ 
lity of the soap causing the sulphur to adhere to the branches, and 
to the wall in sufficient quantity to destroy any insects that may 
then be lodged there, together with their ovaria, which dressing is 
repeated when the trees are in bloom. 
When the fruit is set the trees are well engined or syringed, both 
in obverse and transverse directions, with a strong decoction of to¬ 
bacco. When the trees become well covered with leaves we syringe 
them thoroughly with pure water, and while wet dust them with sul¬ 
phur by means of a puffer; an instrument well adapted for the pur¬ 
pose, expelling the fine particles of sulphur through a minute wire 
sieve at one end about an inch in diameter, similar to the common 
bellows propelling the atmospheric air, and which completely destroys 
the red spider, and prevents the mildew, if the trees, as is commonly 
the case, are infested therewith. 
It must be observed, that it is absolutely necessary to protect the 
trees during the entire blooming season, throughout every night by 
woollen netting or by canvass, and also every day when the weather 
is frosty, cold and wet, or otherwise unpropitious to the tender bloom. 
We have strong hoops driven into the upper part of our walls at pro¬ 
per distances, to each of which is attached a pole by a strong staple, 
the other end being fastened in the soil, and over which is secured 
the netting or canvass, and, when once fixed, the walls are protected 
from inclement weather, or readily exposed to the influence of the sun. 
In the summer management we take care to select that young shoot 
which is nearest to the mother branch, and which generally proceeds 
from about the base of what Mr. Harrison calls the “unsightly spur,” 
and such being the case the identical spur complained of, (or the em¬ 
bryo thereof, which would eventually form a spur if permitted so to 
do) is cut away at the latter end of the year, together with the lateral 
that has produced fruit; having selected the young shoot it is neces¬ 
sary, before midsummer, to tie it down in its proper place, being ra¬ 
ther above and parallel with, the fruit-bearing branch of the present 
season ; which is subsequently secured by a nail and shred, as a tern- 
