582 



THE PEACH. 



Propagation. The peach is the most easily propagated of all fruit- 

 trees. A stone planted in the autumn will vegetate in the ensuing 

 spring, grow three or four feet high, and may be budded in August or 

 September. Two years from this time, if left undisturbed, it will usu- 

 ally produce a small crop of fruit, and the next season bear very abun- 

 dantly, unless the growth is over-luxuriant. 



In nursery culture it is customary to bury the peach-stones in 

 autumn, in some exposed spot, in thick layers covered with earth. 

 Here they are allowed to lie all winter. As early in the spring as the 

 ground is in fine friable condition, the stones are taken out of the ground, 

 cracked, and the kernels sown in mellow prepared soil, in the nursery 

 rows where they are to grow. They should be covered about an inch 

 deep. Early in the following September they will be fit for budding. 

 This is performed with great ease on the peach, and grafting is there- 

 fore seldom or never resorted to in this country, except at the South. 

 The buds should be inserted quite near the ground. The next season 

 the stock should be headed back in March, and the trees will, in good 

 soil, grow to the height of a man's head in one year. This is by far 

 the best size for transplanting the peach — one year old from the bud. 



In England the plum stock is universally employed. The advantage 

 gained thereby is, a dwarfer and neater habit of growth for their walls. 

 In Erance, some of the best cultivators prefer the almond stock. 

 Healthy peach stocks afford the most natural foundation for the growth 

 of standard orchard trees. At the same time we must protest against 

 the indiscriminate employment of peach-stones from any and every source. 

 With the present partially diseased state of many orchards in this coun- 

 try, this is a practice to be seriously condemned ; and more especially as, 

 with a little care, it is always easy to procure stones from sections of 

 country where the Yellows is not prevalent. 



Eor rendering the peach quite dwarf, the Mirabelle plum stock is 

 often employed abroad. 



Soil and Situation. The very best soil for the peach is a rich, 

 deep, sandy loam ; next to this, a strong, mellow loam ; then a light, 

 thin, sandy soil ; and the poorest is a heavy, compact clay soil. We are 

 very well aware that the extensive and profitable appropriation of thou- 

 sands of acres of the lightest sandy soil in New J ersey and Delaware, 

 has led many to believe that this is the best soil for the peach. But 

 such is not the fact, and the short duration of this tree in those districts 

 is unquestionably owing to the rapidity with which the soil is impover- 

 ished. We have, on the contrary, seen much larger, finer, and richer 

 flavored peaches produced for a long time successively on mellow loam, 

 containing but little sand, than upon any other soil whatever. 



It is a well-founded practice not to plant peach orchards successively 

 upon the same site, but always to choose a new one. Erom sixteen to 

 twenty-five feet apart may be stated as the limits of distance at which 

 to plant this tree in orchards, more space being required in warm cli- 

 mates and rich soils than under the contrary circumstances. North of 

 New York it is better always to make plantations in the spring, and it 

 should be done pretty early in the season. South of that limit it may 

 usually be done with equal advantage in the autumn. 



In districts of country where the fruit in the blossom is liable to be 

 cut off by spring frosts, it is found of great advantage to make planta- 

 tions on the north sides of hills, northern slopes or elevated grounds, in 



