Chapter II. 



PROPAGATING THE TREE. 



I declare and affirm as my opinion, without any 

 reservation whatever, that the Peach should be grown 

 only from the seed of the natural or unbudded fruit. 

 Nature advances and does not retrograde, and this 

 crime against nature, of breeding in-and-in, is followed in 

 all phases of life by degenerate offspring, and these, not 

 being fit to live to propagate the species, are self- 

 devoured, as it were, to make room for the perfect 

 specimens of the species — for only the fittest shall 

 survive. I attribute a great deal of the loss and dis- 

 appointment in the peach business to the reckless, 

 careless, nay, almost criminal way in which the propaga- 

 tion of the trees has been carried on. I personally 

 know where seed from evaporators has been taken away 

 indiscriminately for the purpose of raising nursery-stock, 

 and I know that among these seeds were thousands that 

 had come from diseased and premature trees. 



Not only should the seed be from natural truit, but 

 even this should be carefully gone over ; only the very 

 best specimens being selected for planting, and in this 



