FACT NUMBER THREE. 41 



In one quarter, however, enquiry was not dropped, nor 

 was labor given over. This point was in the Sunny Hollow 

 of Onondaga, near the confines of the old Indian reserva- 

 tion. Here, after a series of patient and close observations, 

 and carefully conducted practical experiments, extending 

 through a period of more than thirty years, it was finally 

 discovered that the Peach Tree may be easily and safely 

 reared, and made to yield prime fruit for forty or fifty years, 

 and probably a hundred, as well as for four or five ; and that 

 too, at less expense of ground, as well as time and labor, 

 than is consumed by the mode of culture now generally 

 adopted. 



It has been satisfactorily proved that the premature decay 

 of the Peach Tree, springs from one or more of the three 

 following causes, viz. : « 



1st. The want of a proper choice of ground for the 

 Seedling Plant. If the seed be planted in damp, cold 

 ground, or in soil covered with sand, resting immediately on 

 a compact, clayey sub-stratum, the seed may indeed spring up 

 and grow, but the plant will be unhealthy ;— the root will 

 soon take the Consumption, and then transplant the sickly 

 thing to any kind of soil, and look for thrift, and behold 

 nothing but disappointment will come. When the canker 

 has once taken hold of the young stock, no sunny nook of 

 earth; no kindly kindling soil, can ever afterward remove the 

 disease, or renovate the tree. Close inspection will show 

 that the heart has grown black and is virtually dead; and 

 although the sap may circulate for a while, its energies are 

 wholly lost in throwing out a mass oNiWfe needle shoots, 



6 



