310 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



eluded, of which fifty are noted as American peaches. 

 The French consider the Nectarine as a peach, only 

 differing from the common varieties in having a 

 smooth skin ; and, so far as their general treatment, 

 propagation, and after-cultm'e are concerned, Jhey 

 may safely be considered as only varieties of the 

 same tree. For the peach, a rich, sandy loam, 

 rather light than otherwise, is to be preferred ; and 

 where it is inclined to be heavy, after being made 

 perfectly dry, a large hole nmst be dug for trans- 

 planting, filled with surface-earth, mould, and the 

 lightest earth to be found. 



Peaches are readily grown from seed. The best 

 method is to plant them as soon as possible after the 

 fruit is eaten, and they will generally spring up the 

 next summer. If they have become very dry, they 

 sometimes require another season, with the freezing 

 and thawing of a winter and spring, to cause them 

 to sprout. There can be no dependance placed on 

 seedling-trees for fruit, as they rarely, and in the 

 best varieties more seldom than in the inferior kinds, 

 resemble the original kind. This may be accounted 

 for by the fact that trees, like animals, have a con- 

 stant tendency to return to the original type ; and 

 the greater the deviation from that type made by im- 

 provement, the more liable will be the young trees 

 to show symptoms of deterioration, and, of course, 

 the greater the necessity of guarding against such 

 changes. Peaches are usually budded, and this op- 

 eration should be performed in the first or second 

 year of their growth from the seed. They should 

 be transplanted to their places in the orchard or gar- 

 den early, as young peach-trees are not as much re- 

 tarded or injured in their growth as larger ones. 

 Peach-trees should be placed eighteen or twenty 

 f("^t f;om each other, and not within the shadow of 

 other and taller trees. Deep planting, in the case 

 of the peach, must be sedulously avoided, and the 

 roots allowed to spread freely in the surface soil. 



