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by pruning alone, and a judicious distribution of its young wood.

Commencing with the winter pruning, the first rule to be laid down as a basis for all the rest, is to shorten every shoot in proportion to its strength, and to prune to where the wood is firm and well ripened: this will cause all the pithy and unripened wood to be removed, thence causing a supply of that which is better ripened for the ensuing year. But in order to give every facility to the ripening of this wood, it must be trained thin, not in profusion according to the general custom, but such shoots only as may be required for the following

year.

Trees which have arrived at a bearing state should have their strongest bearing shoots shortened to twelve or fourteen inches, those next in strength to eight or ten, and the weaker ones to four or six inches, pruning each to what is termed a treble eye, or that where there is a blossom bud on each side of wood bud: where branches are not in a bearing state, these treble eyes will not be found; they must therefore be pruned to a wood bud alone, which is always known by its sharp point.

When the tree has been pruned once in this manner, the shoots must be trained neatly, nearly parallel to each other, so that a line continued in that direction would lead itself clearly out to the extremity of the tree.

In May, the season for disbudding the tree, all foreright shoots, as well as those from the back, must be carefully removed with a sharp small bladed knife, taking care to cut close to the branch, but not into the bark a few, however, of these foreright shoots had better be cut within a quarter of an inch only, which will leave two or three leaves to each, to shade the young fruit, and such slight wounds in the branch as have been occasioned by cutting the shoots off close.

As soon as the young shoots have grown long enough,

the leading one from each branch should be nailed neatly to the wall, selecting one or two of the side shoots produced lower down the branch, and training them parallel also. This applies to those of the stronger branches, at and near the extremity of the tree. Those

in the middle and near the bottom, will allow of but one shoot probably in addition to the leaders; this will depend upon the space left in the winter pruning; if sufficient, it is always better to have a young shoot on each side as well as the leader, than to have only one, for it is by this arrangement that a succession of young wood can be kept up throughout every part of the

tree.

Should young shoots, indicating extraordinary vigour, any where make their appearance, they should immediately be cut out, unless where a vacant part of the wall can be filled up, because an excess of vigour in one part of the tree cannot be supported without detriment to the other. Peach trees, when in a state of health and vigour, generally throw out laterals from their stronger shoots; when this is the case, they should not be cut off close, but shortened to the last eye nearest the branch; and if there is room, one or two of those first produced may be nailed to the wall; or the middle shoot may be cut out, leaving the two lowest laterals, and allowing them to take its place; thus frequently obtaining two fruit-bearing branches, when the former one would in all probability have been wholly unproductive of fruit the following year.

In the training of Peaches and Nectarines, I wish it to be particularly understood, that I am a decided enemy to that negligent custom of leaving more shoots in the summer than is well known can be wanted for another year, and the still more slovenly custom of running them in," as it is called, by small pieces of stick extending across the branches, "to prevent their

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being broken by the wind; that is, let the middle of the branch run in be on the outside of the shoot you wish to preserve, and the ends tucked under the two adjoining branches. After the fall of the leaf it will be necessary to take out these loose branches, which will give the shoots more liberty, and admit the sun and air to ripen the wood before the spring pruning." FORSYTH, Ed. 3. p. 49.

Yet this practice, it appears, has been pursued in His Majesty's Gardens at Kensington, and is set forth in Mr. Forsyth's Book, I imagine, as a model of excellence.

There can, indeed, be little doubt of the excellence of such a system, since it possesses the peculiar advantage over all other systems, of causing the wood to ripen during the depth of winter, by the admission of sun and air.

Now, with all due respect for this authority, I would suggest, in contra-distinction to such a practice, that from the first time of nailing in the summer, the shoots should not be suffered to grow more than six inches before they are nailed again, and thus followed up so long as they continue to extend themselves.

In this way, I apprehend, the shoots will be as secure from a violent gale of wind, as those under the tuck system; and that they will be full as likely to ripen during the summer and autumn, whilst we have sun, as in the depth of winter when we have none.

In having given such directions for the pruning and training of Peaches and Nectarines as I have myself been taught and practised, and satisfied myself with, it remains only for me to recommend that the trees should not be overloaded with fruit, but that the crop be regulated by a judicious mode of thinning.

In the thinning of Peaches and Nectarines, and indeed any other drupaceous fruit, it is necessary to pro

ceed with caution, as they are apt to fall off after having attained a considerable size. In order, therefore, to secure a crop, it will be the best way to thin them at three separate times; the first, as soon as the fruit is of the size of a hazel-nut; the second, when of the size of a small walnut; and the third time, as soon as the stone has become hardened: after this it rarely happens that either Peach or Nectarine falls off before it is matured.

In order to render this account of Peaches and Nectarines as complete as possible, I shall in the next chapter give an extract from a paper on their Classification, which I drew up, and presented to the Horticultural Society of London, in 1824, and which is printed in the fifth volume of their Transactions, correcting two or three errors which had crept in, and adding such other varieties of fruit as have since that time come under my own personal observation.

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I

THE Confusion of the sorts of Peaches and Nectarines, the misapplication of their names, and the perplexity thus occasioned both to the nurseryman and the gardener, are sufficient inducements to attempt such an arrangement as may remove these inconveniences. am aware that this has been already done to a certain extent; but the characters employed for the purpose have, I conceive, been insufficient, as will appear on a comparison of the different arrangements now to be examined. In doing this there is no great difficulty, since the authors to be considered are but few.

MILLER* and DUHAMELt are the first who have given us any thing like systematic descriptions, and they have gone no further than to distinguish, generally, sawed from crenate or smooth leaves, large from small flowers, and to separate the Peaches with downy skins from the Nectarines with smooth skins, and those whose flesh adheres to the stone from those whose flesh separates from the stone. Had there been no augmentation

* Gardener's Dictionary, 8th edit. art. Persica.

+ Traité des Arbres Fruitiers, par Duhamel, vol. ii. p. 1, &c.

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