PEACHES AND NECTARINES 191 



According to these facts, I made some very 

 definite experiments in hybridizing; first select- 

 ing for the experiment the white nectarine and 

 the Muir peach. In 1895 numerous crosses were 

 made, using principally the white nectarine 

 pollen to fertilize the blossoms of the Muir peach, 

 a very hardy, vigorous, abundantly productive 

 variety of the peach that is largely cultivated in 

 California. 



The white nectarine has a superior rich flavor, 

 but it is too acid to eat without cooking. It is of 

 large size, has a large stone and white flesh, with 

 perfectly smooth white skin. The Muir peach, 

 on the other hand* is very sweet, with firm yellow 

 flesh, and an unusually small free stone. A tree 

 of this variety is unusually hardy, long-lived, 

 immune from that pest of the peach orchard, 

 curl leaf and may be grown in a large variety of 

 soils in locations where other peaches and necta- 

 rines often fail. 



The offspring of this union of nectarine and 

 peach in due course came to fruiting age, and in 

 some cases the fruit they bore was found to be of 

 a quality superior to that of any peach or necta- 

 rine ever before seen. In the second and third 

 generation there appeared a varied company, 

 showing remarkable new combinations of quali- 

 ties, and anomalies of form, size, color, and flavor. 



