1536 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



can hope to succeed in both lines, no mat- 

 ter how good their opportunities may be. 



The Seed 



The propagation of the peach tree be- 

 gins with the planting of the seed. It 

 must be understood at once that this seed 

 is not intended to develop into a tree 

 itself and reproduce its kind The seed 

 is simply planted for the growing of a 

 stock which is afterward budded to the 

 desired variety. Any sort of peach seed 

 will do, and the home gardener going at 

 the business in a small way need give 

 himself very little concern in selecting 

 his pits. It will be well, of course, if he 

 can secure seed from healthy, vigorous 

 trees. Experienced growers have a 

 prejudice in favor of taking seed all from 

 one variety, and some have especial pref- 

 erence for the Crosby in this connection. 

 The two customary sources of supply for 

 the big propagators are the canning fac- 

 tories and the collectors of so-called 

 Southern "wild" seed. When peaches are 

 canned at the canneries the seeds are 

 taken out and constitute a more or less 

 important by-product. They are dried, 

 packed and sold extensively to nursery- 

 men. These seeds vary enormously in 

 Quality. Some are very large and run 

 few to the bushel; others are small and 

 give fully twice as many trees for each 

 bushel of seed; some have a high per- 

 centage of viability; others germinate 

 very poorly. 



The Southern or natural seed is col- 

 lected from "wild" peach trees, mostly 

 in North Carolina, South Carolina and 

 Tennessee. These pits are much smaller 

 than those from the budded varieties 

 such as are sold from the canning fac- 

 tories. They therefore yield from two 

 to four times as many trees to each 

 bushel of seed This is a consideration 

 of much importance to large propagators. 

 The seed also gives a large percentage 

 of germination and a very vigorous, even 

 growth of stocks for budding. Nearly all 

 nurserymen consider it distinctly su- 

 perior to the canning-factory seed. The 

 old theory, however, that seed from a 

 wild tree is necessarily stronger, hardier 



or healthier than that from the budded 

 tree is nothmg but superstition. 



Care of Seed 



The peach pits are bought in autumn 

 and should be clean and dry when re- 

 ceived. Customary practice, at least 

 among small growers, is to bury them in 

 a moist, well-drained soil for the winter. 

 They are placed in holes dug in the 

 ground of any convenient size and cov- 

 ered with from four to six inches of 

 earth. The soil should be of such a char- 

 acter as to keep the pits moist, and the 

 locality should be such as to prevent 

 water from draining into the hole and 

 covering the pits during the winter. The 

 seeds will freeze and thaw more or less 

 during the winter season, and this has 

 the important advantage of cracking the 

 hard sheels and assisting materially in 

 the germination. 



The pits are dug up at potato-planting 

 time in the spring, are sifted out of the 

 soil and should then be planted imme- 

 diately. In case the pits are not frozen 

 and so have not been cracked or softened 

 they may be gently cracked with a ham- 

 mer before being planted This treat- 

 ment if carefully given will greatly in- 

 crease the percentage and evenness of 

 the stand, but it is, of course, a slow and 

 expensive job. Freezing is sometimes 

 said to be necessary to germination, but 

 this is not a fact. 



Planting the Seed 



The seeds are planted in drills from 

 three to three and a half feet apart in 

 order to allow for horse-cultivation. The 

 seeds are placed in the rows from two 

 to four inches apart. They should germi- 

 nate promptly and give a good even 

 stand. The soil should be thoroughly 

 and evenly worked and a liberal amount 

 of fertilizer used. Indeed, the soil should 

 be enriched before the seeds are planted, 

 and applications of nitrate of soda be- 

 tween the rows during the early part of 

 the summer will often be advantageous. 

 It is of the greatest importance to keep 

 the young trees growing rapidly through- 

 out the summer up until budding time. 

 For this reason seeds should never be 



