MICHIGAN" STATU POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 479 



must be au euormous feeder. It grows twice as fast as the 

 apple, and three times as fast as the pear; comes into fruitage 

 with corresponding speed, and bears fruit with an abundance 

 eeldom equaled by either apple or pear. Under such cir- 

 cumstaoces, it requires an abundant supply of ash elements 

 for the production of healthy woody fibre, and fruit. 



When we remember also that the peach is naturally a pro- 

 duct of a warm climate, and is here out of the latitude fitted 

 to develop in perfection its luscious qualities; that a warm expos- 

 ure and heating soil are here required to ripen it to perfection 

 and pack its flushing cheeks full of condensed sunshine, and 

 as a consequence, warm (/. <?., sandy and light) soils have gen- 

 erally been given up to its cultivation, we can see that too 

 antagonistic conditions of growth have been brought together: 

 First. A cultivation requiring a large amount of nourishment 

 to sustain the rapid growth of wood and the large amount of 

 fruit ; 'and, second, this demand made upon a class of soils least 

 adapted by their composition to supply the demand. Need we 

 wonder that such a system of cultivation, continued genera- 

 tion after generation, should develop an abnormal condition in 

 the peach tree ? 



The peach belongs to a botanical order which would, under 

 natural conditions, be in full vigor at twenty years, and ought to 

 be in comparative vigor at forty ; should begin to fruit at ten 

 to twelve, and be fruitful for thirty years more. But from 

 forced cultivation it begins to bear at four or five, — often ear- 

 lier still, and instead of living to two score, it has disappsared 

 and been forgotten before one score is reached. Hear the tes- 

 timony of William Reid, an eminent cultivator in New 

 Jersey : " All peach trees die, some sooner, some later, accord- 

 ing to varieties. Eight or ten years are as long as we can get 

 peach trees to live here. They have never lived much longer 

 than this for the last forty years ; and occasionally when we 

 have very severe winters, they do not live as long. But they 

 invariably die off in the same way, with small, yellow, sickly 



