n96 THE PEACH. 



Training the peach tree against walls or espaliers is but little 

 practised in this country, except in the neighbourhood of Boston. 

 Espalier training, on a small scale, is however highly worthy of 

 the attention of persons desiring this fruit in the colder parts of 

 the country, where it does not succeed well as a standard. 

 Everywhere in New-England excellent crops may be pro- 

 duced in this way. Full directions for training the peach, with 

 illustrations, are given in page 38. 



Insects and Diseases. For a considerable time after the 

 peach was introduced into America, it was grown everywhere 

 south of the 40° of latitude, we may say literally without cul- 

 tivation. It was only necessary to plant a stone in order to 

 obtain, in a few years, and for a long time, an abundance of 

 fruit. Very frequently these chance seedlings were of excellent 

 quality, and the finer grafted varieties were equally luxuriant. In 

 our new western lands this is now true, except where the disease 

 is carried from the east. But in the older Atlantic states, two 

 maladies have appeared within the last twenty years, which, 

 beacuse they are little understood, have rendered this fine fruit 

 tree comparatively short-lived, and of little value. These are 

 the Peach-borer, and the Yellows. 



The Peach-borer, or Peach-worm [^geria exitiosa, Say), 

 does great mischief to this tree by girdling and devouring the 

 whole circle of bark just below the surface of the ground, when 

 it soon languishes and dies. 



The insect in its perfect state is a slender, dark-blue, four- 

 winged moth, somewhat like a wasp. It commences depositing 

 its eggs in the soft and tender bark at the base of the trunk, 

 usually about the last of June, but at different times, from June 

 to October. The egg hatches and becomes a small white borer 

 or grub, which eventually grows to three-fourths of an inch 

 long, penetrates and devours the bark and sap wood, and, after 

 passing the winter in the tree, it enfolds itself in a cocoon under 

 or upon the bark, and emerges again in a perfect or winged 

 form in June, and commences depositing its egg^ for another 

 generation. 



It is not difficult to rid our trees of this enemy. In fact, 

 nothing is easier to him who is willing to devote a few moments 

 every season to each tree. The eggs which produce the borer, 

 it will be recollected, are deposited in the soft portion of bark 

 just at the surface of the earth. Experience has conclusively 



its trunk, taken at some distance from the ground, is two feet and a half. 

 It is known to he, actually, of more than 93 years' growth, and is believed to 

 be more than 100 years old. It is still in perfect health and vigour. It 

 is growing in strong soil, but it has been regularly subjected to a uni- 

 form and severe system of pruning, equivalent to our shortening-in mode. 

 Where can any peach tree, of half this age, be found in the United States, 

 naturally a much more favourable cUmate for it than that of France ? 



