466 THE PEACH. 



favorable circumstances have passed uninjured through a 

 temperature 20° below zero. 



PROPAGATION OF THE TREES. 



The peach-tree is of remarkably easy and rapid propaga- 

 tion. In rare instances, seedling trees have borne the second 

 year, or sixteen months from the planting of the stone. 

 Stocks may be budded the first summer, affording trees five 

 or six feet high the second autumn. Transplanted the second 

 year from the bud, the trees, with good cultivation, usually 

 come into bearing about the third year afterward. 



Some varieties reproduce the same from the stone with 

 slight variation, but the only certain way to perpetuate deli- 

 cious sorts is by budding. Grafting at the North rarely suc- 

 ceeds ; at the South it is often successful. It often happens 

 at the North that the severe frost of winter destroys the 

 inserted buds, which die and drop off, leaving the attached 

 portion of bark adhering fresh and green to the stock. This 

 disaster, which so often disappoints the hopes of the young 

 cultivator, is to be prevented by selecting buds from the 

 largest and thriftiest shoots. These usually possess sufficient 

 vigor to withstand severe frosts. The triple buds on the 

 older and more matured portions of the shoots of bearing 

 trees generally survive when the single buds above them 

 perish, as may be at once perceived by examining the shoots 

 of bearing trees late in spring. 



When stocks are not budded till the second summer, it is 

 very important to cut them down the previous spring, and 

 suffer but one ascending sprout to grow, which will form a 

 fine thrifty shoot for the reception of the bud. 



In raising stocks, select the seed of hardy and late varieties. 

 The stones are not injured if kept dry in a cellar till winter. 

 If they become water-soaked for a length of time, they are 

 spoiled. But soaking in water for a day or two and subse- 

 quent exposure to freezing facilitate the cracking of the stone. 

 They may be kept through winter mixed with moist sand, and 

 exposed to freezing and thawing, or placed in a moist cellar 

 till near spring, then soaked in tubs or barrels, till the shells 

 are well swollen with moisture. They are then placed in thin 



