THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
189 
December 25, 
frost comes; tlien shelter it in a cohl pit till the end of 
January, then force it as you would a rose, and it will bloom 
beautifully, and last a long time. D, Reaxon. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
THE PEACH AND THE NECTART&E.-REST-PRUNING, &C.— 
[Continued from page 175.) 
How it happens is not easily explained, but wo believe 
it to be a fact, that a good peach cultivator is seldom a 
bad gardener. The truth is, that the man who grows 
the peach well, whether in-doors or out, for a series of 
years, must either have a very correct appreciation of 
iirst principles, or a degree of watchfulness and attention 
which is capable of grappling with most horticultural 
difficulties, from the cabbage to the pine. Indeed, he 
may have both ; and had we not possessed gardeners 
of such calibre, the far-famed Crgstal Palace would 
never have attained its wondrous celebrity. Now, in 
treating of rest-pruning as applied to the peach, it will 
be necessary to merge the nectarine treatment here, 
inasmuch as the difference required is so trifling, if any, 
that no sacrifice will be made, and a simplicity given to 
our proceedings that is of great importance to ladies 
and gentlemen young in the craft. 
As before observed, when growth-pruning—alias finger- 
and-thumb work—in summer is duly appreciated, this 
rest-pruning will be almost a sinecure, and people will 
exclaim—“ Really, how much better it is to anticipate 
these matters in summer, when the days are so long, than 
to wait until the short days of winter, when two men 
can scarely give an equivalent in point of labour to the 
summer plainer.” 
But, admitting that prevention is better than cure, 
and that the maxims alluded to are undoubted, the 
advice here given, it is to be feared, must be so shaped 
as to meet past practice, which, in the main, has con¬ 
sisted in nailing in all the young shoots within the 
greedy trainer’s grasp as thick as twigs in a besom. 
The first thing, of course, is to loosen all the young 
shoots, which, if your man has been a thick trainer, 
will not be a trifle. And now the pruner, being provided 
with a somewhat narrow-pointed knife, may proceed 
to reconnoitre his tree. 
Thinning-out and shortening-back are of course the 
matters to be accomplished; and it may be remarked, 
that the extent to which the shortening is carried must 
depend entirely on the character of the young wood as 
to ripeness, and to the general habit of the tree. In 
young and fresh trees, where the wood is generally rather 
gross, and of course spongy, more of the points should 
be removed than in mature trees; maturity, therefore, 
in the young wood is the principal guider of the pruning 
knife. Mature shoots are much shorter jointed than 
those which are immature. Now, as the length of the 
internode, or space between the eyes, or buds, is of itself 
a sufficient criterion of the character of the wood for 
general purposes, we may as well state what it should be. 
On examining carefully numbers of young shoots this 
evening, I find that those which average three-quarters- 
of-an-inch between the eyes are the most fruitful, and, 
indeed, that happy medium of strength which all good 
peach-growers aim at. Those only half-an-inch are 
rather too short of power, and argue a shy condition 
of root; whilst those over an inch are approaching the 
verge of grossness. Wc will, therefore, make the case 
more prominent thus:— 
Below lialf-au-inch, too weak, if better wood is at hand. 
Above half-an-inch, and below one-and-a-half, excellent; 
adapted both for bearing and providing succession. 
Above inch-and-a-half, too gross, and mostly immature; 
adapted, however, with summer stopping, to build a 
large tree in little time. 
Now, a careful distinction must be made in the mind 
between the age of trees. The above advice is intended 
to apply to hearing trees of some seven to twelve or 
more years of age—so that wood of stronger character 
may be encouraged on young trees, as tending to pro¬ 
duce a fine tree in little time, provided growth-pruning 
is duly attended to. In all cases where strong leading 
shoots exist of the previous year’s growth, with axillary 
shoots developed on each side, and a leader unstopped, 
such may at once be taken as an argument of neglectful 
summer practice. And now to fairly commence the rest- 
pruning. 
It is best to begin at the bole of the tree, and work 
progressively upwards. We last year explained this; 
but for tbe benefit of fresh readers of The Cottage 
Gardener (which is said to be much in the habit of 
receiving infusions of fresh blood from the reading 
world) we must beg to repeat that every care should be 
taken to nurse and to coax all nice young shoots arising 
about the collar of the tree—say within a couple of feet. 
These have been termed a nursery for succession wood, 
and such is indeed the case. If a peach grower can 
always preserve his trees from naked wood, bo assured 
that his management is pretty correct, and that he is 
attentive. Between every two branches, or, in other 
words, the angle formed by their junction, let the pruner 
look sharp out for the best shoot lowest down. This 
must not bo suffered to bear fruit, however willing, 
therefore close pruning must be resorted to. Let it be 
cut back to four or five eyes, according to its character, 
and thus is the foundation laid for filling future blanks. 
Every angle must be looked into for the same reason ; 
and, indeed, the same principle may bo earned out to 
the top of the tree, being made, however, subservient to 
slight modifications occasionally, as there is not so great 
a reason to preserve them with the same degree of per¬ 
tinacity in the upper as in the lower portions. 
The forks or angles being thus examined, and pruning 
for wood having been exercised in a judicious way, the 
whole of the tree may be proceeded with, and this in 
general may be termed pruning for fruit —that is to say, 
leaving all well-placed and proper shoots as long as 
possible—as long, indeed, as their ripeness and the wall 
room will permit. No two shoots of the past summer 
should be permitted to range side by side, unless some 
four or five inches apart. As observed with the cherry, 
it matters not as to the older shoots; it is the leaf- 
producing shoots that must have room ; therefore, a well- 
grown peach or nectarine will, when pruned, exhibit a 
regular succession of young shoots all over the tree— 
the training being on the fan system, which of all others 
we still hold to be by far the most eligible, although not 
quite so systematic as some others. 
To digress for a moment. We would just point to 
the fact, that ever since root-management was esteemed 
a paramount consideration to new systems of training, 
the latter have gradually sunk into a state of disuse. 
Indeed, it is rare now-a-days to find a horticultural 
gentleman entering his study with the idea of recom¬ 
mending a refined system of training. Now that the 
mechanical texture of soils is better understood—now 
that summer or growth-pruning is well known to be 
capable of directing or diverting the juices, according to 
the designs of the trainer, irrespective of any mode of 
training, opinions regarding fruits have attained what we 
must term a healthy position; common sense, at last, 
prevails, and instead of taking up the old adage, and 
saying, “ Much cry, and little wool,” let us begin to 
shout, “ Much wool, and little noise.” The unassuming 
title, Cottage Gardener, has certainly furnished a fair 
quota to this end, whether in fruits or flowers, and we 
say this fearlessly. 
To return. Let us recapitulate some things before 
proceeding further. First, the lowest young shoots in 
