36 ORCHARD-HOUSES. 



ing from plants growing in the nursery, a mistake 

 once made, will perhaps be perpetuated for years. 

 If you buy a new variety, and have no means of 

 proving it, you may propagate and sell large num- 

 bers of a perfectly worthless kind, or one quite 

 unsuited to your climate. Without an orchard- 

 house, it is impossible to compare leaf with leaf, 

 blossom with blossom the only way of gaining 

 an intimate acquaintance with fruit trees. Whilst 

 walking through a large nursery last summer, I 

 was able to convince the foreman, who accom- 

 panied me, that the majority of his Peach and 

 Nectarine trees were incorrect. His reply was, 

 " Well, I am not to blame ; Master buys largely, 

 and I have to work from plants remaining unsold: 

 we have no means of fruiting them." 



HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE DIFFERENT 

 VARIETIES OP PEACHES AND NECTA- 

 RINES. 



There is probably no tribe of fruit trees the 

 varieties of which are so little known by culti- 

 vators in general as Peaches and Nectarines. The 



