XVIII 

 THE NECTARINE 



Though well known in Europe and a decided favor- 

 ite in England, the nectarine is a stranger in 

 America. It is practically unknown here. Probably 

 not one fruit grower in a hundred has ever seen a 

 nectarine. It is very hard to account for this strange 

 neglect of a good fruit. 



The nectarine is simply a smooth-skinned peach — 

 a peach without the fuzz. This definition itself 

 w^ould imply that it was a good thing. The fuzz on 

 the peach certainly has no culinary value ; we may 

 even doubt its having any commercial value. The 

 fruit being otherwise the same as the peach, the 

 nectarine would seem to have a decided advantage 

 over this splendid and well-known fruit. Neglect 

 of the nectarine in America seems to arise largely 

 from the fact that varieties adapted to American 

 conditions have not been introduced. For the most 

 part the varieties which are listed in the fruit books 

 have originated in England and are not adapted to 

 our section any more than European varieties of 

 peaches are. Could we have nectarines of the qual- 

 ity of the Early Crawford peach or of the Foster or 

 Champion, they certainly would find many friends 

 in this country. 



The nectarine used to be regarded by botanists as 

 a separate species, but it is now known definitely 

 to be the same as the ordinary peach, with the ex- 

 ceptions already described. Nectarines have fre- 

 quently originated from peach seeds, and conversely 

 peaches have originated from nectarine seeds. The 



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