THE PEACH. 591 



the best white brandy, which, after being thus flavoured, if 

 sweetened with refined sugar mixed with a small quantity of 

 milk, and afterwards decanted. 



PROPAGATION. The peach is the most easily propagated of all 

 fruit trees. A stone planted in the autumn will vegetate in the 

 ensuing spring, grow three or four feet high, and may be budded 

 in August or September. Two years from this time, if left undis- 

 turbed, it will usually produce a small crop of fruit, and the nexl 

 season bear very abundantly, unless the growth is over-luxuriant. 



In nursery culture, it is customary to bury the peach stones, 

 in autumn, in some exposed spot, in thick layers, covered with 

 earth. Here they are allowed to lie all winter. As early in 

 the spring as the ground is in fine friable condition, the stones 

 are taken out of the ground, cracked, and the kernels sown in 

 mellow, prepared soil, in the nursery rows where they are to 

 grow. They should be covered about an inch deep. Early in 

 the following September they will be fit for budding. This is 

 performed with great ease on the peach, and grafting is there- 

 fore seldom or never resorted to in this country, except at 

 the south. The buds should be inserted quite near the ground. 

 The next season the stock should be headed back in March, and 

 the trees will, in good soil, grow to the height of a man's head in 

 one year. This is, by far, the .best size for transplanting the 

 peach one year old from the bud. 



For northern latitudes, for cold soils, and for training, the 

 plum stock is much preferable to the peach for budding the fine 

 varieties. In England the plum stock is universally employed. 

 The advantage gained thereby is, not only greater hardihood, 

 but a dwarfer and neater habit of growth, for their walls. In 

 France, some of the best cultivators prefer the almond stock, 

 and we have no doubt, as it would check the over-productive- 

 ness of the peach, it would be desirable to employ it more 

 generally in this climate. Still, healthy peach stocks afford the 

 most natural foundation for the growth of standard orchard 

 trees. At the same time we must protest against the indiscri- 

 minate employment (as is customary with some nurserymen) 

 of peach stones from any and every source. With the present 

 partially diseased state of many orchards in this country, this is 

 a practice to be seriously condemned ; and more especially as, 

 with a little care, it is always easy to procure stones from sec- 

 tions of country where the Yellows is not prevalent. 



For rendering the peach quite dwarf, the Mirabelle plum 

 stock is often employed abroad. 



SOIL AND SITUATION. The very best soil for the peach is a 

 rich, deep, sandy loam ; next to this, a strong, mellow loam ; 

 then a light, thin, sandy soil ; and the poorest is a heavy, com- 

 pact clay soil. We are very well aware that the extensive and 

 profitable appropriation of thousands of acres of the lightest 



