PEACHES AT THE SOUTH. 



which will destroy the grub without any injury to the tree. The worm in the fruit, is 

 much less frequent in oichards where the pigs are permitted to consume the fallen fruit. 



Another somewhat serious difficulty in peach culture, is a result of bad pruning. It is 

 the tendency to overbear and break down, from the excess of the crop. More peach trees 

 in this vicinity, aie destroyed or seriously injured from this cause, than any other. 



If the tree be properly shortened in, it will not overbear, and if the branches are not 

 allowed to divide in forks, the tendency to break and split off in case of a full crop is 

 prevented. 



But in seasons like the present, the loss of peaches by decay while approaching matu- 

 rity, is more annoying than anything else in peach culture. When the season is warm 

 and wet, very few kinds of peaches will ripen well, especially on moist or very rich soils. 



Indeed, the most suitable soil for the peach, is quite the reverse of that which is best 

 adapted to the apple or quince. These delight in low rich valleys or bottoms, and in such 

 soils, the tree and fruit will continue growing vigorously until late in the season, and 

 apples fi'om such locations may be kept well in the winter. But the peach, to ripen sound 

 and high flavored, requires a dry and but moderately fertile soil; a hill-side being as good 

 a situation as any, and it is all the better if it faces the north. 



"When the trees are planted, the holes may be made large and enriched, to give a good 

 growth of wood, but afterwards applications of lime, ashes or leaf mould are much better 

 than those which excite rank growth, as they do not impair the flavor of the fruit, or 

 cause it to decay. 



It is the general belief here, that this fruit can be propagated from seed, with consid- 

 erable certainty of procuring good peaches. Not that by planting a peach stone, you will 

 invariably get a peach precisely like the one from which it sprung, but the chances are in 

 favor of such a result, while it is still more probable that the variation of the seedling, 

 if an)', will be merely in size or time of ripening. But in very many cases, the seedling 

 is prccisel}' the same as its parent. For example, there is a peach known here as the White 

 English, a cling of good quality, described hereafter. It reproduces itself from the seed 

 with remarkable uniformity. Dr. Camak has pointed out to me three trees, all seedlings 

 of this variety, and the stones from three different sources, all remarkably uniform in 

 size, shape and quality, and identical with each other and with the fruit from which they 

 oiiginated. 



Tliere is also the Blouton cling, described below, that is propagated from seed, with 

 the same certainty. Other instances might be mentioned. From the facts that have 

 come to my knowledge, I am inclined to believe that the stone of a cling is more likely 

 to pioduce a tree identical with its parent, than one from the free-stone varieties. It is 

 also, the general opinion, that a stone from a seedling, is more likely to reproduce its kind, 

 than if taken from the fruit of a grafted or budded tree. Still free-stone peaches will 

 often reproduce their kind from seed. I have a small free-stone peach, of about second 

 quality, a flue bearer, and one of the earliest, which is very common about here, and inva- 

 riably raised from the stone. It is much hardier than the first rate budded peaches gene- 

 rally, of the same season, bearing a fine crop the present year, when most of the imported 

 varieties were cut off by frost, a quality which renders this peach desirable. 



At the north, I believe, the free-stone peaches are universally preferred, and the trees 

 are mostly propagated by budding. Here most tastes decidedly prefer clingstone peaches, 

 and the great majority of trees are seedlings. There I suppose one would be laughed at 

 should resort to seedlings, with the hope of getting from them a supply of fir; 

 s. Here, until very recently, it was the common, and in truth a tolerable success 



