THE PEACH. 601 



Let us now look a little more closely into the nature of this 

 enfeebled state of the peach tree, which we call the Yellows. 



Every good gardener well knows that if he desires to raise a 

 healthy and vigorous seedling plant, he must select the seed 

 from a parent plant that is itself decidedly healthy. Lindley 

 justly and concisely remarks, " All seeds will not equally pro- 

 duce vigorous seedlings ; but the healthiness of the new plant 

 will correspond with that of the seed from which it sprang. For 

 this reason it is not sufficient to sow a seed to obtain a given 

 plant ; but in all cases, when any importance is attached to the 

 result, the plumpest and healthiest seeds should be selected, if 

 the greatest vigor is required in the seedling, and feeble or less 

 perfectly formed seeds, when it is desirable to check natural 

 luxuriance."* 



Again, Dr. Van Mons, whose experience in raising seedling 

 fruit trees was more extensive than that of any other man, de- 

 clares it as his opinion that the more frequently a tree is repro- 

 duced continuously from seed, the more feeble and short-lived 

 is the seedling produced. 



Still more, we all know that certain peculiarities of constitu- 

 tion, or habit, can be propagated by grafting, by slips, and even 

 by seeds. Thus the 'variegated foliage, which is a disease of 

 some sort, is propagated for ever by budding, and the disposi- 

 tion to mildew of some kinds of peaches is continued almost 

 always in the seedlings. That the peach tree is peculiarly con 

 stant in any constitutional variation, the Nectarine is a well 

 known proof. That fruit tree is only an accidental variety of 

 the peach, and yet it is continually reproduced with a smooth 

 skin from seed. 



Is it not evident, from these premises, that the constant sow- 

 ing of the seeds of an enfeebled stock of peaches would naturally 

 produce a sickly and diseased race of trees ? The seedlings will 

 at first often appear healthy, when the parent had been only 

 partially diseased, but the malady will sooner or later show itself, 

 and especially when the tree is allowed to produce an over-crop. 



That poor soil, and over-bearing, will produce- great debility 

 in any fruit tree, is too evident to need much illustration. 

 Even the apple, that hardiest orchard tree, requires a whole 

 year to recover from the exhaustion of its powers caused by a 

 full crop. The great natural luxuriance of the peach enables it 

 to lay in new fruit buds while the branches are still loaded with 

 fruit, and thus, except in strong soil, if left to itself, it is soon 

 enfeebled.f 



* Theory of Horticulture. 



j- The miserably enfeebled state of some kinds of pears on the sea-coast, 

 arising from unsuitable climate and the continual propagation by grafting 

 from the same debilitated stock, is only a fair parallel to the Yellows in 

 the peach tree 



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