14 CIRCULAR NO. 120, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 
HORTICULTURAL WORK." 
THE MEXICAN SEEDLING PEACH. 
The Mexican seedling peach trees? bore a heavy crop of fruit, and 
the early prospects were good that more data on the comparative 
Fic. 5.—English walnut grafted on native 
Texas black walnut in February, 1912. 
(Photographed August 28, 1912.) 
merits of different trees might 
be secured. The earher ripen- 
ing trees gave a heavy yield of 
good fruit, but the continued 
drought of midsummer dam-— 
aged all the peaches from the 
later maturing trees, making 
the tests with these trees nearly 
worthless. Nearly all the trees 
bore an exceptionally heavy 
crop, but they were not able to 
hold the fruit through such a 
long period of drought. 
The trees are becoming over- 
crowded, owing to their size 
and close planting, bringing 
out the point that to obtain the 
best results the distance be- 
tween the trees will have to be 
greater than is ordinarily 
adopted in more humid sec- 
tions. The trees were planted 
16 feet apart, but it is now ap- 
parent that better results would 
be secured if they were 22 feet 
apart. 
The Office of Foreign Seed 
and Plant Introduction put 
in 324+ buds from what were 
considered the best 9 trees of 
the Mexican seedling orchard. 
These budded trees are to be 
distributed to cooperators in 
southwest Texas to test their 
value under varying condi- 
tions. | 
1 The horticultural experiments were under the direct charge of Mr. R. E. Blair, scien- 
tific assistant. 
2 The seed from which these trees were produced was collected in Mexico by Mr. Gilbert 
Orderdonk, under the direction of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. 
They are listed under S. P. I. Nos. 9320 and 9521. 
[Cir. 120] 
