EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 235 



THE NURSERY CULTURE OF THE PEACH. 



While the farmer or village resident will prefer to purchase his peach 

 trees of a nurseryman, it often happens that an extensive grower can, at 

 a slight cost in labor, propagate his own trees and thus be more likely to 

 secure the varieties he desires to plant, and to have them free from all 

 taint of disease. There are no secrets in the nursery growing of peach 

 trees that can not be readily acquired by any one, and, although practice 

 in the various operations will necessarily make one more expert, if the 

 instructions here given are carefully followed any intelligent person can 

 grow peach trees. 



SOIL FOR A PEACH NURSERY. 



Peaches need about the same kind of soil, whether in the nursery or in 

 the orchard, although the nursery soil should be rather more fertile, and 

 for propagating peach trees a well-drained, sandy loam should be chosen. 

 A clover sod plowed under is an excellent preparation of the soil, and if 

 the soil is naturally fairly fertile it will need no other dressing. If stable 

 manure is used, care should be taken that it is not applied in excessive quan- 

 tities, or in an undecomposed condition, as it would probably cause a 

 watery growth that would not ripen, and winter-killing would ensue. If 

 any fertilizer is needed, unleached wood ashes- at the rate of 150 bushels 

 per acre, and about 500 pounds of ground bone, will supply the necessary 

 plant food, in anything but an exhausted soil, and a strong, well ripened 

 growth can be obtained. If these are not used, and if the soil is deficient 

 in organic matter, ten or fifteen loads of decomposed stable manure, spread 

 broadcast and plowed in, will greatly aid in growing good stock. As stated 

 above, a good clover sod plowed under will be preferable, as it will not only 

 supply the necessary plant food to the soil but it will improve its physical 

 condition. The land should be carefully fitted, as time expended in this 

 will be doubly repaid by the amount saved in the after cultivation. 



THE SEED AND ITS PREPARATION. 



As in the growing of all kinds of nursery trees, the first thing is to 

 obtain suitable stocks upon which to work the improved varieties. As 

 stock for this fruit, peach seedlings are almost universally used. The plum 

 is preferred as a stock for the peach by the English, when they have a 

 cold, wet soil, and is recommended by some for use under similar condi- 

 tions in this country, but it is doubtful if there are any soils, or localities, 

 in which peaches can be relied on to fruit, where the plum stock is 

 necessary. Nearly all writers advocate the use of natural pits, or those 

 from seedling peaches, and this is the almost universal custom. The claim 

 is made that seedlings grown from natural seed are more vigorous than 

 from seed of improved varieties. The natural seed owes its value to the 

 fact that all the efforts of plants in a wild state are used in perpetuat- 

 ing themselves, while our cultivated varieties have been so modified by 

 man in his endeavor to increase the amount, or the quality of the flesh 

 surrounding the stone, that the reproductive properties in the seed itself 

 are weakened, the seeds will be less certain to grow, and the trees will be 



