"pull up," and take a peep at peach trees in perfection: such I shall find at Carlton Hall gardens, under the management of Mr. Seymour. Here is a perfect system, which encourages health, uniformity, regularity, beauty, and utility. When the border is properly made, healthy young trees planted, and Seymour's system closely pursued, the trees will rarely lose their equilibrium. I should adopt it with little deviation in any soil or situation. Here is no confusion of branches by growing over each other; there are no more than what are wanted; each shoot has its allotted space, and, as well as the fruit, is agreeably exposed to the influence of the sun and air. By stopping the shoot at the end of the side branch, the juices are retained for the support of the fruit and the shoot intended for a fruit-bearing branch the following year. But to enumerate all the merits of this plan is not my intention, although I would willingly try, if by doing so I could convert Mr. Newington, and those who are of his opinion, to the faith of it. His plan of shortening back the young spray is useful in particular cases; but, to do it to a considerable extent, he will have crowds of younger spray, and cannot avoid confusion, both of which ought to be avoided on fruit trees of every kind. I wish he had been with me when I visited Carlton, in August, 1825; I am confident he would have been satisfied, had he seen only one tree (I mean a peach tree), which covered 45 ft. of a ten-feet wall. It was then in a state never to be forgotten by any gardener who beheld it. The fruit, which was ripening, was of the finest description, and standing as regularly all over the tree, at about 1 ft. apart, as if it had been stuck on at measured distances; there was scarcely a bare piece of wall as far as the tree extended; from the trunk to the extremities of the branches the succession shoots were equally good from one end to the other. Is it not worth while going fifty miles to see such a tree? I hope Mr. Newington will not take any offence at what I have said, as I have not intended any; and if I have been troublesome to you, Sir, I am sorry for it, and I will endeavour to be more careful in future. I am, Sir, &c. Howsham, March 16. 1830. J. CRAIG. ART. XIX. On the Treatment of the Peach and Nectarine during the Summer Season. By Mr. WILLIAM SEYMOUR, late Gardener to Henry Preston, Esq., Moreby, near York. Sir, AMONGST the various communications in your useful Magazine, there appear to be many complaints of the bad ma nagement of the peach and nectarine, and few offer any regular plan for their improvement. I here take the liberty of contributing my mite along with the rest of your correspondents. I conceive, from what I observed in the south of England last summer, and from former observation, that the greatest error is in the summer management. I will endeavour to give an account of our treatment of the trees at that season, and leave it to you and your readers (should you think it worthy of being laid before them) to judge as to its merits or demerits. In the spring, as soon as the young shoots have grown to about an inch long, we begin to disbud or thumb-prune them, by taking off all the young shoots where there is no blossom or fruit, except the lowest one upon the bearing branch, and that at the extreme point of it: this end shoot is allowed to grow about 3 in., and is then stopped; and the buds by the fruit all broken off to about four of their bottom leaves, so as to make a cover for the young fruit until the time of thinning, when those little spurs are taken away with the fruit that is not wanted, and the others are retained along with the fruit that is left. By so doing, we are only growing the shoot that we shall want next year for bearing fruit, which gives our trees an opportunity of extending themselves, and making good wood; but not so strong as Mr. Newington describes (p. 55.), except in the centre of our young trees (figs. 79, 80. in Vol. II. p. 295.), which are growing in a soil nearly like that complained of by Mr. Errington (p. 54.): in which case we find little inconvenience; for, instead of taking off the summer laterals or water-shoots (as they are sometimes called), as is generally done, we lay them in at regular distances, the same as we should a natural spring shoot; and, if they do not bear fruit the next summer, they will produce fine bearing wood for a future year; so that we have not to shorten those strong shoots, but lay them in their whole length for main or secondary leading branches, as we have at this time shoots laid in, above 6 ft. long, of last year's growth, with fruit upon their laterals. When the young shoots at the base of the fruit-bearing ones, or the extending part of the leading branches, have grown 4 or 5 in., they are tied down to the other branches as close as they will admit without breaking or pinching them, and kept close to the wall through the summer. By this means they will get perfectly ripe and firm, and not be so luxuriant as when permitted to grow from the wall almost wild; and the fruit must, of course, be larger when the wood is thin than when it is permitted to grow twice as large as is necessary. There will be found, when disbudding, at the base of the shoots, small buds that are not likely to make a shoot that season; but they must be retained, as they will produce a shoot in a future year, and then bring your young wood nearer home. Carlton, May 20. 1830. I remain, Sir, &c. WILLIAM SEYMOUR. ART. XX. On a Method of training the Peach and Nectarine on low Walls. By Mr. WILLIAM SEYMOUR. Sir, I PERFECTLY agree with Mr. Kendall (Vol. II. p. 140.) respecting the necessity of adopting some regular method in pruning fruit trees, particularly the peach and nectarine: but I must beg leave to differ in opinion respecting our [the Seymour] method being so well adapted for horizontal training on low walls; for I am inclined to think that that method is not at all proper for the peach or nectarine on low walls, owing to the liability of these species of trees to lose large branches, which, when it happens when the tree is old, and against a low wall, renders it impossible to replace them. The method which I here offer for training on low walls is, to take a maiden plant, and to treat it in the manner described in your Magazine (Vol. I. p. 129., and II. p. 295.), so as to produce a tree in the form of fig. 85.; and when it has grown too large for the wall, it may very easily be changed in figure, in the manner of fig. 86. By these means the fan, curvilinear, and horizontal style will be combined, and the gardener will be prepared, in case of an accident, because any of the branches produced from a a may be made leading I remain, Sir, &c. ones. Weddington, June 3. 1827. WILLIAM SEYMOUR. ART. XXI. Farther Notice of the Pine Plants at Castle Semple, planted in a Bed of Soil. By JOHN HAY, Esq. Sir, I EMBRACE this opportunity of giving you the following extract from Mr. Lauder's letter of the 18th of January: "The pines planted in a bed of soil, in one of the steam-pits, on the 18th of March, 1829, although but the previous autumn's suckers, are now the largest and finest-looking plants of any in all the houses: they are far superior to any of the same age grown in pots in the common way, and form a striking contrast when compared with them. From what I have seen of their progress this last summer, I shall not now hesitate about planting the whole of the other steam-pit in March next, with a view to fruit them in 1831; and I shall plant it next autumn with suckers immediately from the stools, without potting them, to fruit in 1832. Should the fruit be in proportion to the size of the plant, they cannot fail to be fine, one of the small early-planted suckers having, soon after it was put into the bed, started into fruit, and produced a fine pine-apple, which swelled well, and, when cut, was found to be very juicy and of excellent flavour." I have written Mr. Lauder my views of the treatment of the plants, in order to the proving of them regularly in the ensuing spring; and, should he be as successful in this case as in growing the plants, I shall endeavour to send you a specimen of the fruit, which, I think, Major Harvey will not refuse me. I intended to have asked him before I wrote you, but, he having sent me notice to pack the fruit accompanying this, as it must be sent off to-morrow, I had not an opportunity of seeing him. I give you the following extract from Mr. Lauder's letter, as a final answer to your query to Mr. Neill, about the best substance for plunging pots of pines in, in steam-pits: - “ I found the thermometer, in the bed of soil, generally 2o, and sometimes 3°, higher than one plunged at the same depth among rotten leaves; and 4°, and sometimes 5°, higher than one plunged at the same depth among gravel, all in the steampit. The heat was frequently in summer as under : — "When the steam was withheld longer than usual, the thermometer among the gravel was the first that got lowest; but, on the other hand, when the steam was applied longer than usual to the pit, the gravel was soonest heated. Since my return from Edinburgh, I withheld the steam from the pit for several days, until the thermometer plunged to the same depth ranged as follows, on the morning of the 6th of Jan. :— "In the bed of soil 80° 79 74 "On the above day, I let the steam into the pit for about four hours, and the thermometer ranged, the three following days, without any more steam, as follows: "On the 7th Soil 83° Soil Leaves 82 8th Leaves 83 9th Leaves 83 Gravel 80" It appears, from the last trial, that Mr. Lauder has stopped too soon from making his observations: he ought to have continued them until the heat in the bed of soil, as indicated by the thermometer, had sunk lower than 85°. This, however, is the degree of heat at 1 ft. deep in the earth, during summer, in Grenada, as a gentleman, a planter there, wrote home for my information. The thermometer in the steam-pit was plunged 9 in. deep. From the above trials, I think it evident |