246 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— July 1, 185G. 
lish minds, who have lately been joiued to the Council, i 
have prevailed with their associates to act as if a Horti¬ 
cultural Society is occupied more beneficially by insti¬ 
tuting cultural experiments in its own garden, by demon¬ 
strating how plants and fruits ought to be grown for the 
benefit of the whole Gardening community, rather than 
as if it were an Institution where a favoured few might 
obtain rare plants, and a few old gentlemen resident in 
and near London might be lectured once a month in 
J Regent Street. 
Mr. Beaton writes as follows of the Society’s Meeting, 
j on the 24th of June:— 
“ ‘ The glories of Chiswick ’ are not ‘ doomed,’ nor 
| anything like it; they are only under a cloud, thanks to 
; the‘new blood’ by which the Council has been invi- 
i gorated. The Council of this Society have been ‘ a family 
circle’ so long that, with all the money in the world, 
they must have come to a dead lock sooner or later, and 
witli what little money they had lately, they worked in 
the most injudicious manner, and as they do who think 
everything is known and is correct within their family 
party. Who but gentlemeu of weakened intellect would 
have sent to the mountains of Dalmatia, or Albania, or 
thereabouts, for a plant collector, and then say that it 
was not respectable to have anything to do with gar¬ 
deners about the affairs of the garden, much less to 
trust them to go for seeds and plants to foreign parts? 
“ We have got rid of a good deal of that prejudice now 
gardeners have been grafted into the Council, and the 
first produce of this ‘ new blood ’ is the saving of the 
Chiswick Gardens; the scaring away of ignoble resolu¬ 
tions, and a very sensible, but lengthy report, in manu¬ 
script, from the Council, which, when stripped of the 
extraneous words, means this—‘ We have all been of 
the same opinion from first to last—the garden is the 
bond of union after all—we must save it if we can ; the 
house in Regent Street is too good for us under our cir¬ 
cumstances ; we must sell it, and pay off so much of the 
debt; perhaps we shall get free rooms from the Govern¬ 
ment, like other societies, who can lay no greater claim; 
then we want you to persuade your friends, who have sub¬ 
scribed between three and four thousand pounds, to hand 
over that sum to us to add to the price of the Regent Street 
house, and to go to clear off so much more of the debt, 
which is, in round numbers, ten thousand pounds. After 
| paying all this, we have sanguine hopes of retaining the 
garden. At all events, it will be the very last thing we 
would bring to the hammer. But in case part of the garden 
must go, we want you to confirm to us the powers we 
already possess by our charter, namely, the power of 
giving timely notice to part with the garden, or a portion 
of it if necessary ; but you may rely on it we shall not 
lose an inch of it if we can avoid it. After all that is 
settled, it will be time enough for us to consider among 
ourselves the best mode of proceeding for the future.’ 
“To all this we held up our hands with one consent, 
and parted as happy as jolly gardeners ought.” 
PEACHES AND NECTARINES OUT-OF-DOORS. 
According to my ideas of good culture, most of the 
operations connected with Peach culture should be com¬ 
pleted by Midsummer. How can success be expected 
if the trees are left smothered with unnecessary growth 
until that period? and how can any one expect well- 
ripened wood if such be the case? One of the most 
important practices, however, is the pinching in due 
time of gross shoots. This can scarcely be done too 
early : they need not be more than four inches in length 
when this is performed. This practice is equally appli¬ 
cable to young trees or those in full bearing. Some 
persons have affirmed that there is no need for pinching 
when the trees bear well; but tins is not correct. Of 
course, we do not expect much gross wood from trees 
performing hard duty ; nevertheless, they are still, if 
healthy, liable to produce such, and should be handled 
accordingly. Indeed, in the latter case, the practice has 
a double effect, which is scarcely the case in young 
trees; it concerns the fruit of the present year quite as 
much as the welfare of the trees in future years. 
As I consider it indispensable that every amateur 
gardener should well understand the mode in which 
this practice influences the trees, I will endeavour to , 
explain it. Young Peach-trees are very apt to produce 
unequal wood ; one or more riotous shoots not unfre- 
quently threaten to destroy the balance of the whole 
tree. Of course, it will be here understood that what 1 
befits the Peach applies equally to the Nectarine. Now, 
the pinching back gross shoots in this case simply tends 
to throw part of the overweening power of these robbers ! 
—or rather, monopolisers—into the inferior shoots, or I 
those which do not assume so much consequence, i 
This gardeners term equalising the sap, or, in other I 
words, sustaining a due proportion between the various j 
members of which the tree above ground is composed. 
In the case of pinching, as applied to trees in bear¬ 
ing, we havo an extra feature to record and explain. 
Those who are in the least conversant with the habits 
of the Peach and Nectarine will have frequently observed 
that very commonly a tendency exists in the tree to 
produce coarse “ breast shoots”—shoots springing with 
more luxuriance half-way up the branches than at the 
extremities. This carries a very anomalous appearance 
to those who have not spent much time, or exercised 
much close observation, as to the mode in which Nature 
! works. The fact is, that under such circumstances, one 
or more causes may be adduced to account for it. The 
chief, however, seems to be, that the upper portion or 
extremity in trees of any age and bearing habits be¬ 
comes much robbed of its sap by certain demands 
consequent on bearing. As a necessary consequence 
of the parts becoming drier, a sort of contraction, 
or shrinking of the vessels takes place, and thus less 
facility in receiving the ascending fluids, and, indeed, 
of reciprocating with the root aud other portions 
of the tree. But the root, having acquired power, 
will not long be baffled; absorption proceeds, aud the 
hitherto untaxed portions of the lower parts of the tree 
receive more life; those which w'ere inferior speedily 
evince a desire to take a lower position, and hence the 
sudden, impulsive, and somewhat unexpected movement 
which occurs as to the matter in hand. 
It so happens that in such cases, whatever tends to 
arrest the ascending sap before it can reach freely the 
extremities of the branches, tends in a like degree to 
rob the fruit at the extreme portion of their proper 
share of nourishment, and also to lower the energies of 
the branches in that quarter; hence the reason for so 
often “ cutting back ” in Peaches — sometimes whole 
j branches. 
Those of our readers who care for these things will 
perceive what I mean. Such are my opinions, the result 
of many years’ experience; and if any man can prove 
them wrong, either by science or practice, or both, why, i 
I shall heartily thank him, being ever desirous to lay in J 
fresh facts, aud to throw errors overboard, for they much i 
impede the voyage of life. 
Here I must observe, that in this, as in most other 
matters, a certain amount of caution is necessary. There 
are cases in which it is desirable to cover naked walls 
as speedily as possible. Hero the pinching must be 
modified according to circumstances, having regard to 
1 the extent of walling to be covered. In such cases the 
luxuriant shoots may be left until about a foot in 
length before they are pinched. This will bring them 
J to the end of June; and if pinched about that time, 
! two pairs of side or lateral shoots may be counted on 
