The
growth is directed and kept within proper limits, and the tree
preserved for future usefulness. Thus the peach-trees of the
garden will not only furnish some of the most delicious morsels of
the year, but also a very agreeable and light phase of labor. They
can be made pets which will amply repay all kindness; and the
attentions they most appreciate, strange to say, are cutting and
pinching. The pruning-shears in March and early April can cut away
forming burdens which could not be borne, and pinching back during
the summer can maintain beauty and symmetry in growth. When the
proprietor of the Home Acre has learned from experience to do this
work judiciously, his trees, like the grape-vines, will afford
many hours of agreeable and healthful recreation. If he regards it
as labor, one great, melting, luscious peach will repay him. A
small apple, pear, or strawberry usually has the flavor of a large
one; but a peach to be had in perfection must be fully matured to
its limit of growth on a healthful tree.
Let no one imagine that the shortening in of shoots recommended
consists of cutting the young sprays evenly all round the trees as
one would shear a hedge. It more nearly resembles the pruning of
the vine; for the peach, like the vine, bears its fruit only on
the young wood of the previous summer's growth.
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