ON SPECIFIC NEEDS 



The peach in particular is a tender and short- 

 lived tree, peculiarly subject to the attacks of 

 insects and to fungoid pests. 



Seemingly the developers of this luscious fruit 

 have been so concerned to foster the remarkable 

 qualities of the fruit itself that they have neglected 

 the tree on which the fruit grows. So the peach 

 orchard, instead of outlasting a human generation 

 as it should, is an ephemeral growth, the indi- 

 vidual trees of which are in good bearing only for 

 a few years, after which they must be replaced. 



The peach grower is always uprooting the 

 dead trees in one part of his orchard and planting 

 new ones in another. 



The Question of Stamina 



Unfortunately the peach is so specialized that 

 it will not thrive on any roots except its own. It 

 should be possible, however — at least the project 

 is one that invites the experimenter — to develop a 

 more vigorous and longer-lived race of peaches. 

 Something could doubtless be done by mere selec- 

 tion, taking cions for grafting or raising seedlings 

 from the hardiest and most vigorous trees of the 

 orchard. It has been shown that it is possible to 

 hybridize the peach with its hardier relative the 

 almond. Probably in successive generations there 

 might be developed a hybrid stock of trees that 

 would retain all the good qualities of the peach 



[15] 



