HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 323 



season. This list comprises well known and general favorites. There are 

 many other new kinds, and some old, but ill-known ones, probably as good 

 as those enumerated. The Tyson is a fine large, well-flavored variety, 

 ripening about mid-season. In my observation, it seems but a shy bearer, 

 but I have only seen young trees. The Eliza is a very early, large, yellow 

 Peach, of which I think very highly, though some of my friends deem it 

 but second rate in flavor. . Tippecanoe, and La Grange have high reputa- 

 tions, but of these, I cannot speak from my own experience. The Shang- 

 hae Peach, lately introduced from China, will, I think, prove one of our 

 best late peaches. The fruit is very large, flesh melting, and of a yellowish 

 white, the habit of the tree is peculiar ; the buds are white, and the leaves 

 and shoots very vigorous and strong. But as tastes differ as widely as, in 

 many cases the varieties of the Peach itself, we will pass to another bone 

 of contention — the best time to plant. So far as my experience goes, 

 peaches will do nearly as well planted early in spring, as early in the fall, — 

 say before the 15th of November. I prefer to plant them as soon as the 

 first autumn frosts have scorched the leaves. The only disadvantage I have 

 noted as attendant on autumn planting Peaches is, that the soil becomes 

 packed tight around the roots by spring, and the fibres do not seem to push 

 so freely there, as they do in soil newly turned up, and well filled with air 

 and nutritious gases. On the other hand, an early fall planted tree, gene- 

 rally gets a good root hold before fall, and while it suffers less from severe 

 winters, will at the same time, often bear some fruit in the following sea- 

 son, which a spring planted tree rarely does. The advantages and disad- 

 vantages of spring and fall planting, are respectively so evenly balanced, 

 that probably opinions will never be united in one channel on the point. 

 Each will do well to consult his own observations and convenience. 



My after management of the Peach is a very simple affair. It consists 

 in chief, of "letting them alone." If they do not seem as vigorous as I 

 like them, I prune back, or shorten in a little, some of the young shoots ; 

 but the maxim is sound, that if you want wood, prune and "trim out," if 

 fruit, cut as little as you can. I like the ground around and about peach 

 trees to be kept constantly tilled, cultivated and kept clean. I never could 

 convince myself by reason, analogy, or observation, that Peach trees did well 

 with a mass of sod around them, and the constant cultivation of the soil 

 is also advantageous towards inducing fruitfulness, by cutting off occasionally, 

 some of the smaller roots thereby checking that extreme luxuriousness, 

 which is a frequent cause of barreness in this class of fruits. Melocoton. 



