CHAPTER IV. 



THE PEACH AND NECTARINE. 



THE PEACH, -when in perfection the most delicious fruit of our cli- 

 mate, succeeds in favorable localities, from Maine to the Gulf of Mexi- 

 co. In the more northern regions, the ripening of the earlier varie- 

 ties commences only a few weeks before the close of the summer 

 months ; in the extreme south, well matured peaches are obtained 

 nearly as early as cherries and strawberries at the North. 



The trees are more tender and of shorter duration than most fruit 

 trees of temperate climates. In some localities they bear only two 

 or three good crops, and then decline or perish. On favorable soils 

 they continue for twenty or thirty years. In Western New York 

 trees have in rare instances borne fruit for forty or fifty years. In 

 France, according to authentic testimony, peach-trees which have 

 been annually and freely pruned, have lived to an age of one hun- 

 dred years ; and there is no doubt that on favorable soils, and by a 

 regular shortening-in pruning, most of our orchards would endure 

 much longer than the ordinary period. 



The most extensive peach-growing regions are in New Jersey, 

 Delaware, Maryland, and portions of the West some orchards 

 containing forty or fifty thousand trees, and hundreds of acres occu- 

 pied with the plantations of single proprietors. The northern por- 

 tions of Ohio and Western New York, protected on the north by 

 Lakes Erie and Ontario, and Western Michigan, afford a very favor- 

 able climate for this fruit. But throughout the country at large, the 

 selection of proper localities would doubtless afford good and regu- 

 lar crops, even in districts where its culture is rarely attempted. 

 The remarks on this subject in a previous chapter of this work, are 

 particularly commended to the attention of those who may attempt 

 the peach culture in severe climates. 



The destruction of the peach crop is caused in nearly all cases by 

 the intense cold of winter. Vernal frosts, to which its loss is often 



