CHAPTER XXI 



THE NECTARINE 



The nectarine reaches perfection under California 4 conditions, as 

 does its close relative, the peach. The fruit is, in fact, as Downing 

 says, only a variety of the peach with a smooth skin ; only a distinct, 

 accidental variety of the peach ; and this is rendered quite certain, 

 since there are several well-known examples on record of both 

 peaches and nectarines having been produced on the same branch. 

 Nectarine pits usually produce nectarines again, but they occasion- 

 ally produce peaches. Peach seeds occasionally produce nectarines ; 

 the Boston variety originated from a peach stone. All these facts 

 which are recorded of relation between the peach and nectarine have 

 been verified by California observation. 



The practice of growing nectarines is also exactly like that em- 

 ployed with the peach. It is propagated and pruned in the same 

 ways. The peach and nectarines are the same in natural adapta- 

 tions and requiremnts, and in diseases, so that what has been given 

 concerning the growth of the peach in this State has application 

 to the nectarine. 



The success of the nectarine worked on almond stock, as has 

 been demonstrated by the experience of many, has led to the graft- 

 ing over a good many unprofitable almond trees to nectarine, though 

 this has not been done to the extent to which the French prune and 

 some other plums have been worked on old almond stocks. 



Comparative Production of Nectarine and Peach. It may be 



wondered, considering the similarity of the peach and the nectarine, 

 why the former comes so near being our leading deciduous fruit and 

 the latter is the least grown, but one, of all temperate zone fruits, 

 only the lowly quince being less in importance. The explanation 

 is that the fruit buyer, both in California and at the East, prefers 

 the peach, whether it be fresh, or canned, or dried, and some of 

 those who have tried even a few acres of nectarines have found 

 many occasions to wish the ground had been given to peaches. How 

 much of this preference is due to lack of knowledge of the nectarine, 

 and how much to its somewhat different flavor, it would be difficult 

 to actually determine. 



That the nectarine would advance in popular favor has been 

 prophesied for some years, because of the wonderful excellence of 

 the nectarine as grown in our interior valleys, and the passing 

 beauty of the amber translucency of the dried nectarine, both when 

 sun-dried and when produced by machine evaporators. The excel- 

 lence of the canned nectarine has also figured in the anticipation. 

 It is, however, questionable how far this anticipation has been 

 realized, for it is estimated that the amount of dried nectaries is 

 less than two per cent and of canned nectaries less than one-half 

 of one per cet of the respective forms of peaches. Nor does the 



