PERSIC A, PEACH TREE. 



49 



with beauty & refined & delicate flavor unknown anywhere else. They compensate well 

 for the laborious & costly cultivation that they require. So whatever the conditions of the 

 soil, temperature, the growers' skill, or these three combined, the peach tree seems to 

 beautify & enhance the attributes of this particular region of Europe. 



Even though the peach tree adapts to all kinds of soil as long as it's fit for 

 cultivation, nevertheless the tree won't acquire the same strength nor does its fruit achieve 

 the same quality everywhere. In thin, arid, or clayey soil the peaches are liable to become 

 mealy, & lacking sustenance, the majority drop before they're ripe & the trees often are 

 afflicted by gummosis. In rich soil with loam not far below, the peach trees become 

 beautiful & fruitful, but the fruit usually is bland or has an unpleasant tartness depending 

 on the type. It's common practice in damp & cold soil to plant only peach trees that are 

 grafted on plum trees, & in warm & dry soil peach trees grafted on almond trees. Based 

 on my own experience I believe that this distinction is useless, provided the soil is 

 sufficiently deep. 



Complete success can be expected from peach trees planted in soil that's gentle, 

 friable, substantial, deep, and doesn't suffer either from too much or too little moisture. 



IV. In our climate only a few kinds of peach trees such as the Bourdin, Persique, 

 and the Chevreuses do well in open ground. The others, either too delicate or too late- 

 ripening, need a wall to protect them or to ripen their fruit (*). The nature of the soil & 

 the type of peach will determine the appropriate exposure. 1°. No kind of peach tree can 

 ripen when 



(*) Space on espaliers is too valuable to be taken up by 

 peach trees raised from pits where the quality of the fruit 

 is as yet still undetermined & just as often can be 



poor or mediocre as well as good. They're 

 planted in open ground & they usually do quite 

 well there. 



