186 On Peach Trees. . 



vourable to its production. A fine early peach which 

 ripened, in Northampton, Virginia, so eai'ly as June, 

 did not ripen on my farm, before the last of August and 

 first of September. The sandy soil of our southern 

 states, appears to be more favourable to this fine fruit, 

 than the stiff clay of our mountains. But nothing ap- 

 pears to me to have more influence, in the successful 

 production of peaches, than a near approach to water. 

 All the information I have received convinces me, that 

 not only the coast of the Atlantic, but the borders of 

 our western waters are more favourable to the produc- 

 tion of peaches, than districts more inland. It is said 

 that peaches grow in the greatest perfection, and even 

 wild, on the river la Plata ; how much faither south, I 

 am uninformed ; but probably the same rules govern in 

 ascending the southern latitudes, as on the north of the 

 equator. 



I shall say but little on the cultivation of this useful 

 tree ; but will barely remai'k, that it should always be 

 planted shallow, with the soil raised about it in the form 

 of a hill ; that Forsyth's method of heading down trees, 

 a year or two after planting, insures the most vigorous 

 growth ; and that tilling the ground, for some years, 

 after setting them out in orchards, is essential to the 

 rapid and successful growth of the trees. 



The diseases and early death of our peach trees is a 

 fertile source of observation, far from being exhausted. 

 In reasoning on this subject, as in the case of animals, 

 we must ascertain the cause, before we can apply the 

 most successful remedies. In all diseases of the peach 

 tree, that I have examined, it appears to me that insects 

 do the mischief. The curling of the leaf, the boring 



