114 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



destroyed, but reports from Michigan show that the peach trees 

 passing through a winter temperature of twenty degrees below 

 zero have produced a full crop the following season ; it is seldom 

 we experience so low a temperature in New England. In 1884 

 the peach buds were substantially all killed in Massachusetts 

 before Christmas and the thermometer had not indicated zero 

 weather at that time. It is said our more open winters exposing 

 the soil to more frequent freezing and thawing are the cause of 

 failure, in answer it may be said the buds are frequently killed 

 before these changes occur. 



It is generally conceded that the continued perpetuation of 

 plants and trees by cuttings, budding and grafting tends to 

 weaken the constitution ; this is most readily seen in the suc- 

 culent plants, every florist knows that he must renew by grow- 

 ing seedlings his bedding plants if he would have healthy 

 vigorous stock ; the health}'^ life of some of them may be limited 

 to five or six years, deterioration becoming more rapid as the 

 stock becomes matured or diseased. 



For the last forty years the peach growers have confined 

 themselves mostly to a few well-known varieties, viz. : the early 

 and late Crawford, Cooledge Favorite, Foster, Oldraixon and 

 Stump the World. The stocks have been grown from pits 

 gathered promiscuously, often from fruit grown upon diseased 

 trees and buds taken from trees in similar condition. 



Under such conditions could we reasonably expect to grow a 

 fruit having its origin in a warmer and more equable climate ? 

 In alluding to this matter Downing says: "Every good 

 gardener knows that if he desires to raise a healthy and vigorous 

 seedling plant he must select the seed from a parent that is itself 

 decidedly healthy." Again he says : " Is it not evident that the 

 constant sowing of the seeds of an enfeebled stock of peaches 

 would naturally produce a sickly and diseased race of trees." 

 Lindley says : " All seeds will not equally produce vigorous 

 seedlings but healthiness of the new plant will correspond with 

 that of the seed from which it sprang." 



The opinions of men who have made fruit growing a life 

 study, confirmed by our own experience, would suggest more 



