50 Peach-Growing 



ural," that is, seedling, peach trees and orchards that abound 

 in the Appalachian Mountain districts and adjacent areas 

 of North Carolina, Tennessee, and certain other states. 

 The latter source is usually considered much the more pref- 

 erable. Pits secured at canneries may have come from fruit 

 produced on "diseased" trees — the disease most feared 

 being "peach yellows/' However, this disease has not 

 reached the Pacific Coast so far as known, and no serious 

 difficulties appear to follow the use of pits from canneries 

 in this part of the country. Pits of certain varieties, such 

 as the Salwey, are generally preferred. It may here be said 

 that pits from fruits that definitely show "yellows" will 

 very rarely germinate ; this may not apply, however, to pits 

 from fruits grown on the apparently healthy part of a tree 

 that is just beginning to show this disease on a part of its 

 limbs. 



For many years the seedling peach orchards above referred 

 to as growing in some parts of the South have been favorite 

 sources for peach pits from which nurserymen have grown 

 their seedling stocks. The pits are gathered in the late 

 summer and early fall, frequently a bushel here and a half 

 bushel there, or in larger quantities as conditions may per- 

 mit, assembled at central points, as at a country store, and 

 subsequently taken over by nurserymen or others who 

 make a specialty of supplying peach seed to the nursery 

 trade. 



The advantage claimed for the natural peach pits over 

 those from "budded varieties" is smaller size, greater uni- 

 formity in size, thus making machine planting easier and 

 more satisfactory, and also a greater uniformity and vigor 

 in the seedlings that grow from them in comparison with 

 those from cannery pits. Besides, the best grades of natural 



