43 



peach production is possible in a commercial way in many sections 

 of the East. 



In California, where almonds and peaches are very often 

 planted in close proximity, many seedlings are known which are 

 very evidently natural crosses between the peach and the almond. 

 In addition many artificial crosses have been made with no difficulty 

 and have been planted and brought to maturity. The products of 

 these crosses have shown the same general characteristics as those 

 found naturally. 



W^e are familiar with a peach-almond growing on the edge of 

 a large almond orchard in California which produces good crops of 

 fruit quite regularly. The fleshy portion or hull is almost edible, 

 being much drier than the flesh of an ordinary peach and yet much 

 more fleshy than the hull of the ordinary almond. It has a slight 

 amount of astringency, a characteristic of the almond hull, but not 

 sufficient to prevent its being eaten. Upon maturity this fleshy por- 

 tion or pericarp splits but does not open as is usually the case with 

 almond hulls. Inside this the pit, stone, seed or nut, or by what- 

 ever name it may be called, exhibits characteristics of both the 

 peach and the almond. It does not have the deep corrugations of 

 the peach pit nor does it have the comparatively smooth shell with 

 small pores of the almond. In this particular variety the kernel is 

 mildly bitter. In almost every respect this cross exhibits character- 

 istics of both the peach and the almond. In other cases this is not 

 true, some approaching more nearly the almond type while others are 

 almost indistinguishable from peaches. In other words, the varia- 

 tions are those naturally to be expected in hybrids. 



Now to return to the almond again. We find that for best 

 results in production the almond must be grown in a climate where 

 the winters are comparatively short and yet where there is sufficient 

 cold weather to force the trees into complete dormancy. Where the 

 winters are long or the summers are so dry as to force the trees 

 to come dormant too early in the fall there is a great tendency to 

 premature blossoming in the spring. In other words, the first warm 

 weather in the late winter will bring the trees into bloom because of 

 the fact that they have completed their normal rest period. This 

 same condition has been found to be true of certain varieties of 

 peaches which can be grown in the South but do not do well whe- 

 planted in the North. It is for this reason primarily, in our judg- 

 ment, that almonds do not produce under eastern conditions. There 

 are other factors, such as extreme humidity, which may have a bear- 

 ing, and undoubtedly would in the maturing of these nuts, but this 

 should not prevent them bearing provided they could escape the 

 adverse weather of late winter and early spring. 



A mistaken notion has been given considerable credence that the 

 almond is much more tender to frost or cold than the peach. Our 

 experience, where the two have been grown side by side under iden- 

 tical conditions, is that the almond will stand fully as much cold as 



