148 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



there can be no doubt but that the fruiting-top is influenced by the stock 

 upon which it is worked. The present nursery practice is to buy peach- 

 pits, whatsoever they may be, at the lowest price, sow them in nursery- 

 rows and at the proper time bud to named varieties. Time was, in the 

 East at least, when the pits came from the run-wild peaches of the southern 

 states from which grew vigorous, healthy "and fairly tmiform seedlings but 

 it is to be feared that most of the pits, the country over, now come from 

 the canneries and from varieties so diverse in vigor, habit and season that 

 the resulting seedlings are variable and must make variable the trees grown 

 upon them. It is greatly to be regretted that the practice of growing peach 

 stock from southern wild seed has been departed from though even a better 

 practice might be to grow trees from some vigorous variety or, possibly, 

 a different species, as Prunus davidiana, which is now largely used in China. 



Prunus davidiana has, as we have stated in discussing the species, 

 been tried very widely in the United States and seems to have many 

 excellent qualities for a stock. The seedlings are vigorous, healthy, hardy, 

 bud readily and the seeds keep well and sprout very tinifomaly so that 

 usually there is a good stand. Perhaps the character that commends it 

 most highly at present, however, is the hardiness of the species. It is 

 proving hardy in colder regions -than those where the peach is now a com- 

 mercial crop, so that, wherever this fruit as now grown is at the mercy of 

 the winter, Prunus davidiana is a promising substitute for the hit-and-miss 

 stocks now used. The drawbacks to the use of the Chinese species are that 

 it does not bear fruits of any value whatsoever so that the crop would 

 have to be grown for the pits alone and, because of very early blossom- 

 ing, the trees bear only in most favored situations as regards spring frosts. 



Peach-on-peach is now the rule in eastern America but in Etirope, and 

 to a lesser extent on the Pacific slope, several other species are used. Thus, 

 the hard-shelled Sweet Almond has long been used in Eiu-ope and is found 

 to make a hardy, strong stock in dry soils in California. The Damson 

 and St. Jxolian plums have been used with varying satisfaction in moist 

 and heavy soils in America; and in Europe, these, with the Muscle and 

 Pear plums, are common stocks for the peach. Peaches are dwarfed 

 somewhat by all plum-stocks. The Myrobalan plvmi, very commonly 

 used for nearly all cultivated plums, was at one time recommended for the 

 peach but turned out to be very unsatisfactory and is now practically 

 never used. The nectarine, Peento and Honey peaches are budded upon 

 seedling peaches. 



