184 THE PEACH ASD NECTAMNB. 



taneoualy whdlly unsuited to this country. Here the propagation of 

 peaches from their Btones for the production of a, peach orchard would 

 he labour lost and land wasted. The chief objects in view by those 

 who propagate peaches from seeds in Great Britain are improved varieties 

 and the manufacture of stocks for furnishing root power for the multi- 

 pHcation of superior varieties. Success in the first can only be reason- 

 ably expected when skill and care have been exercised in the selection of 

 ■the seeds— and even in producing them. No doubt chance seedlings do 

 occasionally spring up possessing extraorffinary merit. Of such one 

 success may come to vary the monotony of ten thousand failures. But, 

 by careful selection and skilful cross-breeding, success becomes almost 

 a certainty. Like produces like — only in fruits the succession to 

 primitive or primeval types is so strong as to break the above law of 

 life more often, perhaps, than keep it. StUl, the more care in selection 

 and crossing superior varieties the more success. This is abundantly 

 proved by the experience of Mr. Thos. Eivers, of Sawbridgeworth, who 

 has more than doubled the number of good peaches and nectarines. 

 Some of his most successful hits have been made by the inter-crossing of 

 peaches with nectarines and vice versA. By such methods he has suc- 

 ceeded in imparting much of the luscious quality of such nectarines as 

 the Pitmastom Orange and Stanwiok to several of his peaches, and in 

 giving more of the size of the peach to such grand nectarines 

 as the Victoria and others. Those who sow seeds for improved varieties 

 can hardly do better than take a leaf out of his book in regard to such 

 matters. By crossing and sowing only the seeds of the finest fruits of 

 the best varieties success becomes well-nigh certain. 



As to the time and manner of sowing, Nature affords the best 

 lessons. The fruit falls in the autumn before the leaves, and its pulp 

 and the covering leaves keep the stones moist with u covering of 

 loose friable material through the winter. The pulp especially hastens 

 the decomposition of the hard covering of the seed — ^the shell or 

 stone — and the covering of leaves retains moisture and excludes frost. 

 By the time the warmth of the spring returns the kernel is in an 

 active state of growth, ready to burst its shell and to begin growth. 

 Hence, upon the whole, the best time to sow peach stones is in the 

 autumn. Choice hybridised seeds should be sown in pans, pots, or 

 ijoxes, and wintered in a cold pit in a temperature of 40° or so. 

 So treated they will mostly vegetate early in the spring, and may 

 either be potted off or planted out towards the end of May. Or 

 choice seeds may be stored in pits or cellars, in damp sand or earth, 

 in a low temperature, and either planted in the open air in the spring, or 

 in cold or other pita or frames. The growth of such seeds may also be 



