FRUITS VARIETIES A.\D CULTURE. 561 



more sure to grow. Abundance of stocks can often be 

 procured by taking the volunteers that spring up under 

 the trees in early spring, when about an inch high, and 

 transplanting in rows three feet apart and oue foot in the 

 row. Plant them in good soil, where they will grow 

 rapidly; if the season is good they will be of sufficient size 

 to bud iu August. Wheu the inserted buds start in the 

 following spring, the stocks may be cut down to within 

 two inches of the bud; and then keep rubbing off the 

 shoots or robbers for at least two mouths; otherwise the 

 inserted buds will be overpowered by them, and die, or 

 make but feeble grow T th. 



The buds had best be iuserted iu the north side of the 

 stock to screen them from the sun. Peach trees raised, or 

 varieties originating, iu the Northern States are not at all 

 unfitted for our climate, yet there is some risk of import- 

 ing trees from the North on account of diseases peculiar 

 to that section from which Southern raised trees are 

 exempt. 



Some varieties of European fruits are found to succeed 

 better here than where they originated, but as a general 

 rule, all fruits succeed best in their native locality. 



Peach trees in transplanting are set twenty feet apart 

 each way, which gives one hundred and eight trees to 

 the acre. If shortened in yearly, they may be set fifteen 

 feet apart, which will give one hundred and ninety-three 

 trees to an acre; in gardens fifteen feet is generally the 

 best distance. 



Peaches are so much alike in general character — the 

 difference in outline, color, flavor, and texture being less 

 than with other plants — that it is necessary in order to 

 determine the name of a variety to resort to other 

 methods of distinction. 



The two most obvious distinctions or divisions are into 

 freestones and clingstones; or, as we call them, soft and 



