OF FRUIT TREES. 205 



position, and young shoots will soon sprout forth and 

 bear fruit. When peach trees have become un- 

 productive from old age or disease, Mr. Forsyth, 

 from long experience, recommends to head them 

 down according to rule, and apply the composition, 

 by means of which, trees in the worst condition may 

 be completely renovated, and rendered abundantly 

 fruitful. Hitherto, the diseases of peach trees 

 among us have eluded all our art and skill : how 

 far a different management may prove successful, 

 time and experience must determine. It may, 

 however, well be questioned whether it is most 

 profitable to renew our stock by frequently plant- 

 ing the seed, or to attempt to protract the exis- 

 tence of old unproductive trees by the application 

 of remedies. For myself, I have closely inves- 

 tigated the subject of canine madriesss in the hu- 

 man species, and the desperate maladies among the 

 peach trees, and am compelled to denounce them 

 both as equally intricate and irremediable, arid as 

 equally meriting the appellation of opprobium ine- 

 dicorium. 



" A good peach possesses these qualities : the 

 flesh is firm; the skin is thin, of a deep or bright 

 red colour next the sun, and of a yellowish green 

 in the shade; the pulp is of a yellowish colour, full 

 of highly flavoured juice; the fleshy part thick, 

 and the stone small. They are generally divided 

 into free stone and cling stone peaches. Those va- 

 rieties, the flesh of which separates readily both 

 from the skin and the stone, are the proper peaches 

 of the French, and are by English gardeners term- 

 ed free stones. Those with a firm flesh, to which 

 both the skin and the stone adhere, are the pavies 

 of the French, and by English and American gar- 

 deners named cling stones. 



