. The American fruit culturist : containing directions for the propagation and culture of fruit trees in the nursery, orchid and garden : with descriptions of the principal American and foreign varieties cultivated in the United States . Fruit-culture. 282 THE PEACH. measurably improved. If this pruning is regularly and annually performed, the head of the tree will be preserved in an even, handsome, and compact shape, fig. 230, and in a healthy and vigorous condition; and it will become rarely necessary to shorten and thin out the limbs by cutting back the larger side-branches. The pruning may
. The American fruit culturist : containing directions for the propagation and culture of fruit trees in the nursery, orchid and garden : with descriptions of the principal American and foreign varieties cultivated in the United States . Fruit-culture. 282 THE PEACH. measurably improved. If this pruning is regularly and annually performed, the head of the tree will be preserved in an even, handsome, and compact shape, fig. 230, and in a healthy and vigorous condition; and it will become rarely necessary to shorten and thin out the limbs by cutting back the larger side-branches. The pruning may be performed with a hedge or long- handled shears, or with nearly equal convenience by means of a light standing ladder and a common pruning knife. Any cultivator who may doubt the value of shortening-in the peach, need only to try the experiment for a few suc- cessive years, on a tree standing side by side with one un- pruned, to become fully convinced of its eminent advan- tages.* Training the peach against walls and buildings, so essen- tial to the successful culture of the peach in England, is rarely practiced in this country. It would doubtless hasten the maturity of the crop; but the warm exposure, would at the same time, unless the branches were purposely protect- ed, render the crop more liable to destruction by frost. Es- palier training has been found to give excellent fruit, in consequence of the thorough pruning and full exposure. Fig. 231—First year. Fig. 232—Second year. Fig. 233—Third year. adopted in the management of the trees. Figs. 231, 232, and 233, exhibit the fan training usually adopted in espalier and wall training, in its sucessive stages. To induce early bearing, shorten back one-third or one- half the new shoots about midsummer, or a little sooner, which, by lessening the growth of the leaves, tends to the production of fruit buds. * Such varieties are apt to overbear, and not come to perfection at the north, as the Heath Clin?, are thinned of
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