302 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



better, is of better color and quality, if picked before quite 

 ripe. The time for this work is indicated by the wormy 

 specimens becoming mellow. For home use it is best to 

 gather the fruit as it matures, each time picking the largest 

 specimens while they are still hard. The varieties sug- 

 gested as likely to be most satisfactory are Clapp, Bartlett, 

 Sheldon, Bosc, Seckel, and Hovey. 



THE PEACH. 



The peach can only be profitably grown on high, rather 

 light, well-drained land. It sometimes succeeds when 

 planted on low land if located near the house, where the 

 cellar wall gives perfect drainage and the building affords 

 some shelter from severe cold, but generally unless on 

 elevated land the buds are destroyed by severe cold in most 

 northern sections during the winter. While it may not be 

 advisable to plant the peach for profit on low land, the buds 

 sometimes escape and a single good crop from a peach-tree 

 in the home garden will well repay the labor and care of 

 growing and the long years of waiting. Peach-trees can- 

 not be expected to live very long in any section of the 

 country; the average life of the trees throughout the 

 country is probably not more than 10 to 12 years. If the 

 land on which the trees are planted is very rich, it will be 

 well to plant some other crop among the trees to check a 

 too-rapid growth, especially while the trees are young, 

 though when a crop of fruit has been set there is little or 

 no danger of making the soil too rich. A moderately 

 vigorous growth from the beginning to the end of the 

 season gives the best and most hardy wood and the finest 

 flavored fruit, and the latter should always be .ripened on 



