214 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 8, 1861. 
omitting Geranium Cerise Unique; it also faced both ways 
thus :— 
Row next the walk, Golden Chain Geranium. 
Second row. Lobelia and Cineraria ameloides. 
Third row, Geranium Brilliant. 
Eourth row, Yerbena Purple King. 
Fifth row, Calceolaria, yellow. 
Sixth row, Ageratum mexicanum, being the centre or ridge 
of the ribbon. 
Seventh row, Calceolaria, yellow, same as fifth. 
Eighth row, Yerbena Purple King, same as fourth. 
Ninth row, Geranium Brilliant, same as third. 
Tenth row, Lobelia and Cineraria ameloides, same as second. 
Eleventh row, Golden Chain, making both edges alike. 
The whole of the plants forming these inimitable borders were 
all that could be desired, so far as the state of the weather at 
the time I saw them allowed them to be. Lines of colour clear 
and distinct, not run into each other, but uniform and of the 
proper height. An ornamental door or gateway leading to else¬ 
where terminated this fine border, which I could not regard 
otherwise than the most effective planting in the whole grounds. 
But Mr. Fish seemed disposed to alter it another season—in fact, 
I expect the arrangement of the whole undergoes a change every 
season; even the beds which I have described will, I suppose, 
be different another season, except so far as the permanent plants 
are concerned. But as there are some other things at Putteridge 
Bury deserving attention as well as the flower garden, I find I 
must defer until another opportunity the task of describing 
them. J. Robson. 
PEACH-TREE TRAINING AND PRUNING. 
In one of your contemporaries, a correspondent professes to 
give a modicum of advice on the culture of Peaches ; but appears 
more assiduous in pointing out the errors and mismanagement 
of some of his neighbours, than in the diffusion of knowledge. 
In the first place, he points out the errors at Charlington 
Manor; and, in the second, those at the Yicarage, Pewsey 
Hollow. He says, the clergyman here is a clever man and a 
good observer, and then states that one side of his Peach tree 
is three times as big as the other, and those at Charlington 
Manor exhibit symptoms of decay through the bearing shoots 
being laid in at full length. To obviate this, he recommends 
the bearing shoots to be shortened considerably, in order to 
induce them to push a shoot from their base to succeed them in 
their turn. This advice I consider quite beside the mark, and 
calculated to lead the inexperienced gardener astray. He points 
out the tree with the big side, but leaves the clergyman in the 
dark as to how he might have a tree with two big sides. And 
he goes on to say, that hundreds of cases not unlike these 
examples are to be found all over the kingdom, owing to not 
knowing exactly what treatment a Peach tree requires. He 
does not supply the knowledge which he says is wanting, so I 
request permission to state it briefly. 
In the first place then, as to shortening the bearing wood. This 
requires the greatest care of the gardener to perform properly, 
for if you leave fruit-branches without wood-buds at the ex¬ 
tremities, they die as soon as they have flowered. The fruit-buds 
of the Peach are easily recognised, they are round and ruddy, and 
garnished with a cotton envelope ; whereas the wood-buds are, 
on the contrary, long and of a green colour. The wood-branches 
are known by their vigour, and by their bark which is grey 
from the first year. The bark of the fruit-branches is very 
smooth, green on the side towards the wall, and red on the side 
towards the sun. Again, with reference to the tree with the 
threefold side. The sap flows more strongly unto a shortened 
branch than into a long one : therefore, when one part of a tree 
becomes less strong than the other, prune it shorter so that the 
sap may ascend in greater abundance and reinforce the weaker 
part. This shows, too, that to have fruit you should prune 
long, and short to have wood. The sap of trees always mounts 
perpendicularly from the root to the top, flowing through the 
straight branches and producing wood instead of fruit: there¬ 
fore, when you wish to restore equality between two branches 
of which one is more weak than the other, bend the more 
vigorous one down a little, and raise the weak one which will 
soon overtake it. Also, when you wish a tree to furnish well 
at the bottom, you must prevent the sap mounting to the head 
by inclining the upper branches downwards and pruning them 
long. 
The fruit of the Peach is produced on the shoots of the pre¬ 
ceding year. If these are shortened indiscriminately, some will 
grow too luxuriantly and yield nothing but leaves ; and others 
too weakly and be incapable of maturing the fruit. To furnish 
bearing shoots in sufficient abundance and of proper strength is 
the great object of Peach-pruning; the fan-form is generally 
adopted. Young trees are often procured after being trained 
two or three years in the nursery ; but I prefer to commence 
with a maiden plant—that is, in the first year after it has been 
budded, I then head it down to six buds. In the following 
summer two to four shoots are trained in according to the 
strength of the plant, the laterals must be thinned out and 
properly nailed to the wall. If there are four branches, in the 
subsequent winter the two central ones are shortened back to 
produce others, and the lower ones are laid in at greater length. 
In the following season additional shoots are sent forth, and the 
process is repeated till eight or ten principal limbs are obtained. 
To maintain the equilibrium of the tree the principal branches 
must be raised or depressed, the laterals must be carefully 
thinned out (by pinching off with the fingers) in summer, the re¬ 
mainder must be; nailed in to afford subordinate members and 
bearing wood. 
When the centre of the tree is well filled up, the most necessary 
part of training is to prevent the inferior branches from acquir¬ 
ing an undue ascendancy over the mother branches. Mearlwhile 
the pruning for fruit has been going on. This consists in 
shortening the laterals which were nailed in at the disbudding 
or summer pruning. Their length must depend on their in¬ 
dividual vigour and that of the tree. 
The buds which are generally double, with a fruit-bud between 
them, seldom occur quite close, to the insertion of the shoot, 
two or three pairs may be left with a wood-bud at the point to 
afford a growing shoot, in order to act as its lungs ; for it is 
very necessary to have leaves above the fruit. When the fruit 
begins to swell the point of this leading shoot must be pinched 
off that it may not drain away the sap. Any young shoot from 
the wood-eyes of the bearing branch must be carefully preserved, 
and in the following winter it takes the place of the branch 
which has borne fruit. If there be no young shoot below, and 
the bearing branch is short, the shoot at the point of the latter 
may be pruned for fruit; but this must be done cautiously, and 
if the bearing branch be long it is better to cut it back for 
young wood. It is the neglect of this which constitutes the 
principal error of Peach pruning.—T. H. Carline, Lumsdale. 
MILDEWED VINES. 
It must be obvious to every reader of The Cotta gke Gardener 
that Mr. Gadd, at page 135, is keeping good the well-known 
adage, “ many men, many minds,” or rather opinions ; and cer¬ 
tainly must be ascribed to be as untimely in his remarks as a 
severe frost would be in the month of June, in saying I am de¬ 
cidedly wrong (a hasty conclusion, and seemingly without a 
second thought) in ascribing the mildew on Grapes to the 
syringe. Can it be possible that Mr. Gadd read the paragraphs 
at page 80, as well as the eighth at page 81 ? If he had, and 
combined the whole together, he certainly must have come to a 
far different conclusion to the one he has stated. In fact, where 
mildew makes its appearance in a house at all, is it not far too I 
often through the whole affair being mismanaged? Yes, and 
the only hope (where such is the case) of improvement is in 
trying again. Such has been the case many a time before, 
depend on it. There is not the shadow of doubt but that far too 
great a number will find it so again. 
Supposing we were now to take a retrograde movement, or 
step back and glance at it, or the ravages mildew has made 
during the last two or three years, but more especially to the 
year 1858—a year in which I was brought in connection with more 
houses infested with the disease than I did any year before or have 
since. Could that be ascribed to an absence of sun ? Certainly 
not. What can it be attributed to, then ? Why, that is soon 
answered—Nature seemingly steps in and answei’s for herself on 
this point. She says, Let the border be composed of the proper in¬ 
gredients, and to be fed at the proper season ; then if they are 
infested with mildew, it must be through the mismanagement of 
those that have or have had the care of them. 
It was at this date that I came in contact with mildewed vinerie9 
in various parts of the west of England. Some in the neigh- i 
j bourkood of Bath—a good Grape-growing locality, and several ; 
