ON THE PRACTICABILITY OF RENOVATING FRUIT-TREES, 129 
growths of summer shoots, only to be cut away, with only an occasional 
sprinkling of fruit near the extremities of the branches. We seldom 
enter an old garden without seeing barren old trees crying aloud for 
such manipulation; particularly pear and cherry-trees, which might 
easily be brought into a bearing state by some one or other of the means 
above alluded to. 
Some trained fruit-trees are liable to become naked of spurs, or 
bearing wood at bottom. This defect may be remedied, either by 
priming back, or by inserting buds or grafts on the naked parts. Peach 
and nectarine-trees are sometimes liable to this inconvenient deformity ; 
and they of all others are (as far as our own experience has gone) the 
most difficult to be made to break into young shoots from the bottom of 
naked branches We know that it has been long ago advised to make 
an angular incision subtending to a point, whence a shoot is required to 
issue: indeed, we have tried this, but without success. Inserting buds 
into such old limbs seldom succeeds, because of the thickness of the 
bark, which makes the operation impracticable. But we have often 
had our doubts anent this difficulty ; whether or not, we have gone the 
right way about the business; because we have no difficulty in budding 
a shoot or branch one, two, or three years old; but, if much older, the 
operation is imperfectly performed, by reason of the thickness of the 
bark, and to its much firmer attachment to the alburnum. If, there¬ 
fore, the bark be made as thin as is necessary in the first place, there 
would be no difficulty in putting in a bud at the proper season. We 
would therefore advise to shave off all the outer layers of bark in one 
season, and put in the bud in the next. 
It must be considered, however, that stone-fruit trees are impatient 
of wounds, if made at the wrong season. If such shaving off the bark 
were done when the sap is without motion—that is, in winter—and so 
deep that the sap-vessels of the inner layers of bark were lacerated, the 
sap at its rising would ooze out and be coagulated into gum, and thereby 
injure the vital membrane by stopping the healthful current. But if 
such disharking were done in the summer, less damage would ensue ; 
the inner layers would be soon healed, and left in good condition to 
receive a bud or buds in the following July or August. 
We are sorry to add that we have never tried this scheme of budding 
an old branch of a peach or nectarine ,* but we have no doubt that it 
is practicable and well worth a trial; and as such we particularly 
recommend it to the attention of our readers, some of whom may be 
induced to give the scheme a fair trial, and thereby originate a new and 
useful expedient in the management of wall-fruit trees. 
Heading down old trees in orchards is a good old custom. Large 
VOL. v. — NO. JjV.Hl. 
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