THE PEACH. 97 



The culture of the peach is generally of an easy 

 nature, and the product when the seasons are favora- 

 ble is encouraging, in most parts, although in the 

 more northern states the trees are often very much 

 injured by s the winter's severity, for which no 

 remedy to my knowledge can be applied in any 

 satisfactory manner. In the vicinity of Albany, N. Y* 

 I have seen peach trees laid down and covered with 

 soil as the grape vine, but the system has rarely 

 answered a good purpose, for in bending down the 

 tree the roots have to be loosened on one side ; and 

 besides I have noticed generally that the blossom 

 buds are lost when the branches are taken up, so the 

 practice fails altogether of its object. 



The peach is at first propagated by procuring the 

 stones and keeping them in a mould during the 

 winter in a box or other vessel, and in the spring 

 they may be sown in rows thickly together in a rich 

 soil ; when the plants are grown three or four inches 

 high, they are then to be replanted into nursery rows 

 two feet apart, and one foot between in the row ; 

 this removal must be made in moist weather or the 

 plants will not root freely in the soil. 



In the operation of pruning, care must be taken to 

 cut the branches off clean, and shave the rind with 

 a sharp knife in order that it may heal freely. All 

 dead wood and small, weakly branches may be cut 

 out, and the tree regulated in such a manner as to 

 have an equal proportion of wood. There is no 

 tree that naturally divides itself into a more regular 

 habit than the peach, but it is generally seen to grow 

 too much at top, and ponsequently the branches are 

 much diminished in the centre. This is to be 

 counteracted by pruning the top spike of the leading 

 7 



