YAEIETIES. . 161 



ripe fruit by the middle of June, or even earlier. The 

 ripening of the fruit may also be hastened by simply 

 exposing your tree in some warm position early in the 

 spring, carefully removing it to a shelter from cold and 

 frosts at night and on cold days, or, which is still better 

 in an ordinary garden hot-bed. 



In pots, is the appropriate method of cultivating Van 

 Buren's Golden Dwarf; but as it is a dwarf naturally, 

 cutting-in will seldom be necessary. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



VARIETIES. 



The varieties of the Peach, as of many other fruits, are 

 very numerous, and may be almost indefinitely increased 

 by propagation. More than a hundred and fifty have been 

 already catalogued, and this does not include the naturals, 

 which are as numerous and various as the budded ones. 

 But, of all these, only a fe\v, comparatively, are valuable,, 

 and worthy of cultivation. Were five-sixths of the whole 

 condemned and rejected, it would be as greatly to private 

 profit as to public advantage. But this desirable result, 

 at present, seems unattainable. The obstacles are two. 

 Young and inexperienced planters generally desire a large 

 variety. They want some of almost every kind, not re- 

 flecting that it costs just as much to rear a poor tree as a 

 good one, while the latter will often pay them two or 

 three times as much as the former. But they have to 

 learn wisdom by experience, and are somewhat excusable* 

 As they grow older, they grow wiser. 



The other obstacle is in the nurserymen, and the one 

 contributes to the other. The nurserymen know well the 

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