PEACH BUDS WINTER KILLED. 



549 



the Creator in the soil and in the air; then, 

 whenever it begins to grow, though it may 

 be compelled to struggle against an insuffi- 

 cient supply of food for a titne, yet, over- 

 coming this, should it be able to overcome 

 it, it is a perfect plant, and in all respects 

 identically the same, and having all the 

 very same characteristics — of vigor — health 

 — variety — and oiher peculiarities — as fully 

 impressed upon it as if the seed from which 

 it sprang had been as sound and perfect as 

 is possible.* 



But what then ? Are we to be indifferent 

 in the selection of seeds, and make use of 

 any that may fall in our way, whether per- 



fect Of imperfect, indiscriminately ? By no 

 means. Let us raise no starvelings. Let 

 us take care to feed the trees we are rear- 

 ing up as we would our children — begin- 

 ning with the seed, and continuing through 

 all the stages of subsequent growth. Not 

 with delicacies ; not with stimulants ; but 

 with plain, wholesome and nutricious diet. 

 Let us give them a suitable soil, and climate, 

 and vianageinent ; for, should disease over- 

 take them; should tiieir native vigor become 

 impaired, we may rest assured that its in- 

 ception will be found in some of these. 



T. S. H. 



Coslioctun, Ohio, Aj^ril, 1847. 



When the mercury falls to 14° below zero, 

 the peach buds are generally killed. 



This temperature is much more common 

 in low situations, than in elevated ones in 

 the same vicinit)\ 



Consequently, in northern latitudes, in 

 localities subject to this degree of cold, 

 peaches will more generally bear fruit on 

 hills than in valleys. 



The principal evidence on which the first 

 of these statements is made, is the testimony 

 of Mr. Osborne of this town. He is an ama- 

 teur cultivator of fruit, a gentleman of great 

 intelligence, and imbued with a Baconian 

 reverence for facts ; a qualify very rare in 



* We tbiiik our correspondent lias overlooked some impor- 

 tant facts in stating this proposilion. We will mention one 

 only — the seeds of a peach tree, badly diseased with the yeUoifs, 

 will, nine times out of ten, produce young trees in which also 

 the yellows appears, even if the seeds are taken away and 

 planted distant from all diseased trees. Sometimes the dis- 

 ease shows ilself at once, sometimes not till a year or two 

 has elapsed. But so well is the fact known, that nurserymen, 

 living in districts where the yellows is prevalent, send to some 

 district where this disease is not known for the stones to pro. 

 duce their peach stocks.— Ed. 



PEACH BUDS ■V77IlSrTSR KILLED. 



BY GEORGE BARTLETT, SMITIIFIELD, R. I. 



the world, and especally among agricultural 

 writers. In the year 1820, Mr. Osborne 

 was engaged in setting some young peach 

 trees in his garden, when he was told by a 

 very observing old farmer, that the peach 

 buds were killed by the extreme cold of 

 winter. Mr. Osborne manifested some 

 incredulity in regard to the matter, when 

 he was urged by the quiet old observer to 

 try it. " After a very cold snap," said 

 he, "cut open the blossom "buds, and you 

 will find a black speck in the middle, and 

 in the spring you will see that the buds will 

 not blossom." Since that time Mr. Os- 

 borne has made the observations every year, 

 and has found this to be invariably the case. 

 There have been several summers during 

 this period, in which the peach trees in his 

 garden have borne no fruit, and in the win- 

 ter preceding each one of these summers, 

 the mercury was depressed to 12 or 14 de- 

 grees below zero. And his trees have 

 borne every year in which this degree of 



