304 The Peach and Nectarine. 



months from the planting of the stone. Stocks may be budded 

 the first summer, affording trees five or six feet high the second 

 autumn. Transplanted the second year from the bud, the trees, 

 with good cultivation, usually come into bearing about the third 

 year afterwards. 



Some varieties reproduce the same from the stone with slight 

 variation, but the only certain way to perpetuate delicious sorts is 

 by budding. Grafting at the North rarely succeeds : at the South 

 it is often successful. It often happens at the North, that the 

 severe frost of winter destroys the inserted buds, which die and 

 drop off, leaving the attached portion of bark adhering fresh and 

 green to the stock. This disaster, which so often disappoints the 

 hopes of the young cultivator, is to be prevented by selecting buds 

 from the largest and thriftiest shoots. These usually possess suffi- 

 cient vigor to withstand severe frosts. The triple buds on the older 

 and more matured portions of the shoots of bearing trees generally 

 survive when the single buds above them perish, as may be at onc 

 perceived by examining the shoots of bearing trees late in spring. 



When stocks are not budded till the second summer, it is very 

 important to cut them down the previous spring, and suffer but one 

 ascending sprout to grow, which will form a fine thrifty shoot for the 

 reception of the bud. 



In raising stocks, select the seed of hardy and late varieties. 

 The stones are not injured if kept dry in a cellar till winter. If 

 they become water-soaked for a length of time, they are spoiled. 

 But soaking in water for a day or two, and subsequent exposure to 

 freezing, facilitate the cracking of the stone. They may be kept 

 through winter mixed with moist sand, and exposed to freezing and 

 thawing, or placed in a moist cellar till near spring, then soaked in 

 tubs or barrels, till the shells are well swollen with moisture. They 

 are then placed in thin layers on the surface of the ground, and 

 exposed for two or three weeks to the action of the frost, being pro- 

 tected from drying by a covering of soil, leaf-mould, or muck. 

 About the time the frost disappears from the ground, they are taken 

 up and cracked by hand, placing the stone on the end of a wooden 

 block, and striking a gentle blow on the side edge with a hammer. 

 The kernels are thus taken out uninjured. They are then planted 

 one or two inches deep (a light thin soil needing more depth than a 

 heavy and moist one), and if they have been previously uninjured, 

 nearly every one will grow. Care is needed that the seeds do not 

 become dried nor mouldy before planting. 



When it is intended for them to come up evenly, as they are to 



