THE PEACH. 277 



The destruction of the peach crop is caused in nearly all 

 cases by the intensely severe cold of winter. Vernal frosts, 

 to which its loss is often erroneously ascribed, very rarely 

 have any influence. If the fruit buds remain unswollen. 

 they will endure almost any degree of cold to which our 

 climate is liable.* But it often happens that we have a 

 few days of mild or warm weather late in autumn or during 

 winter. This is sufficient to swell them slightly, or to throw 

 moisture enough into them to render them tender ; and if 

 the thermometer should then sink several degrees below 

 zero, there is scarcely a chance for their escape. Their 

 condition may be ascertained within a few days by making 

 a cross cut with a knife through the fruit buds. If destroyed, 

 the centre will be dark brown; if uninjured, they will pre- 

 sent the fresh yellow-centre of sound buds. 



PROPAGATION OF THE TREES. 



The peach tree is of remarkably easy and rapid propaga- 

 tion. In rare instances, seedling trees have borne the second 

 year, or sixteen 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 de- 

 licious sorts, is by budding. Grafting rarely succeeds.! For 

 directions see page 42 of this work. 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 disas- 

 ter, which so often disappoints the hopes of the young cul- 

 tivator, is to be prevented by selecting buds from the largest 

 and thriftiest shoots. These usually possess sufficient vigor 

 to withstand severe frosts. The triple buds on the older and 

 more matured portions of the shoots of bearing trees, often 

 survive when the single buds above them perish; as maybe 



* Peaches are successfully raised so far north that the thermometer usually falls 

 to 30 degrees below zero, by protecting them from the vicissitudes of the weather of 

 \vinier, by means of a good coating of evergreen boughs. 



t At the south, where the warm and moist climate often approaches in character 

 that of a hot-house, grafts of the peach often do well, and even cuttings of the ap- 

 0'.e inserted in open ground frequently take ready root. 



