AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 365 



and thinner-fleshed form of the almond, include almost all the 

 inferior varieties down to those known as " hog peaches." 



Until within the last thirty years, the peach-tree grew so 

 luxuriantly, and bore so abundantly without any care, that the 

 little labor which it now requires to bring it to maturity and 

 renew it every two or three years, since it can not be perpetu- 

 ated, is not unfrequently neglected or begrudged. It is still 

 the most easily raised of all our larger fruits. A few pits from 

 common and healthy fruit, kept and planted as directed page 

 204, will furnish stocks of from three to five feet high, ready 

 for budding the first fall, upon which fruit of the finer varieties 

 may be expected in the third or fourth year from the pit. If 

 from any cause seedling peach stocks are not budded in the 

 fall of their first year, unless a high-stemmed stock is desired, 

 cut them down to the ground early in the following spring, 

 and permit a single shoot to grow from the stump for budding 

 in the succeeding fall. The necessity for this course should 

 be avoided by timely planting of the pits, careful summer cul- 

 ture of the young plants, and attention to budding and unbind- 

 ing in proper season ; but if it becomes necessary, it is better 

 than to leave the stock to an uninterrupted second year's 

 growth. The young trees may be set out and headed down ei- 

 ther the following spring before the bud starts, or, being headed 

 down, as directed page 225, may be left to stand another year, 

 when the growth from the bud will vary from four to seven or 

 eight feet high. 



In their culture, from the start, let the head of the tree be 

 kept moderately open by cutting out a foot or two of the ex- 

 tremity or leader of the first year's growth from the bud, thin- 

 ning the branches annually afterward, and every spring short- 

 ening each young shoot one half of its growth of the previous 

 year. Set your peach-trees where they can be kept clean, and 

 cultivated as summer crops, and never, if it can be avoided, 

 where the sod is to remain unbroken around them. If this can 

 not be conveniently avoided, treat them with liquid manure re- 

 peatedly through the summer over a space somewhat larger 

 than the spread of the top, and dress in the spring with ash 

 compost or guano to the same extent ; yet be careful in all 



