THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



There is one thing sure, I have never seen more beautiful 

 plums, or tasted better-eating ones than these of yours. If 

 the sod treatment is the cause, and it seems to be, I am per- 

 fectly willing for it to have the credit." Those plums had 

 hung upon the tree, full ripe, for over a month. So much for 

 apples and plums. As to peaches, I have already shown from 

 Mr. McFarland's letter that my sod Eiberta was so superior 

 to the cultivated Eiberta he had been familiar with for years 

 that he did not recognize it. Another curious effect of culti- 

 vation on the peach is that it increases the size of the seed, 

 and, in many cases, causes them to split in the peach, which I 

 never saw in sod fruit. There is also a remarkable difference 

 in the effect of shade on sod fruit. It is well known that it 

 prevents all cultivated peaches from coloring well and greatly 

 increases their liability to rot ; while on sod trees, peaches es- 

 pecially, the fruit in the densest shade, which the sun never 

 touches, is even more highly colored than those in the sun, 

 nor do they ever show a sign of rot. One more peculiarity 

 of sod peaches, and I will then leave the subject of cultivation. 

 It is well known that cultivated ones picked too soon, even 

 though well colored, will never have the flavor of those 

 ripened on the tree. Not knowing that this did not apply to 

 sod fruit as well, when I came to select the Eiberta for those 

 long trial shipments, I was greatly worried over which to pick. 

 If I took them too hard and green, I feared they would not be 

 fit to eat, and if too ripe, that they would rot on the long 

 journey. Finally, I concluded it was better to have them go 

 in good order, if not as eatable ; so I selected only those that 

 were well colored but perfectly hard, and with a slight show 

 of green, not one of which could be dented by the hardest 

 pressure of the thumb. But, to my surprise and pleasure, 

 they all ripened up so perfectly that Mr. Poland, of Los An- 

 geles, said they were "fit for an epicure;" Mr. McFarland, 

 that "the flavor was most refined;" and Mr. Olcott, of Ro- 

 chester, "delicious, as fine as if picked fresh from the tree." 

 With this most important discovery, I will now pass to a dis- 

 cussion of blight and other tree diseases. 



