590 



THE PEACH. 



marks : " All seeds will not equally produce vigorous seedlings ; but the 

 healthiness of the new plant will correspond with that of the seed from 

 which it sprang. For this reason it is not sufficient to sow a seed to 

 obtain a given plant ; but in all cases, when any importance is attached 

 to the result, the plumpest and healthiest seeds should be selected, if the 

 greatest vigor is required in the seedling, and feeble or less perfectly 

 formed seeds, when it is desirable to check natural luxuriance." * 



Again, Dr. Van Mons, whose experience in raising seedling fruit-trees 

 was more extensive than that of any other man, declares it as his 

 opinion that the more frequently a tree is reproduced continuously from 

 seed, the more feeble and short-lived is the seedling produced. 



Still more, we all know that certain peculiarities of constitution 

 or habit can be propagated by grafting, by slips, and even by seeds. 

 Thus the variegated foliage, which is a disease of some sort, is propagated 

 forever by budding, and the disposition to mildew of some kinds of 

 peaches is continued almost always in the seedlings. That the peach- 

 tree is peculiarly constant in any constitutional variation, the Nectarine 

 is a well-known proof. That fruit-tree is only an accidental variety of 

 the peach, and yet it is continually reproduced with a smooth skin from 

 seed. 



Is it not evident, from these premises, that the constant sowing of 

 the seeds of an enfeebled stock of peaches would naturally produce a 

 sickly and diseased race of trees f The seedlings will at first often 

 appear healthy, when the parent had been only partially diseased, but 

 the malady will sooner or later show itself, and especially when the tree 

 is allowed to produce an over-crop. 



That poor soil and over-bearing will produce great debility in any 

 fruit-tree, is too evident to need much illustration. Even the apple, 

 that hardiest orchard tree, requires a whole year to recover from the 

 exhaustion of its powers caused by a full crop. The great natural luxu- 

 riance of the peach enables it to lay in new fruit-buds while the branches 

 are still loaded with fruit, and thus, except in strong soil, if left to itself, 

 it is soon enfeebled. 



There are some facts in our every-day observation which may be 

 adduced in proof of this theory. In the first place, the varieties of this 

 tree always most subject to this disease are the yellow peaches • and they, 

 it is well known, also produce the heaviest crops. More than nine- 

 tenths of the victims, when the disease first appeared, were the yellow- 

 fleshed peaches. On the other hand, the white-fleshed kinds (those white 

 and red externally) are much more rarely attacked ; in some parts of the 

 country never. They are generally less vigorous, and bear more mod- 

 erate crops. And it is well worth remarking that certain fine old sorts, 

 the ends of the branches of which have a peculiar mildewed appearance 

 (such as the old Red Rareripe, the Early Anne, &c), which seems to 

 check the growth without impairing the health, are rarely, if ever, 

 attacked by the Yellows. Slow-growing and moderately productive 

 sorts, like the Nutmeg peaches, are almost entirely exempt. We know 

 an orchard in the adjoining county where every tree has gradually died 

 with the Yellows, except one tree which stood in the centre. It is the 

 Red Nutmeg, and is still in full vigor. It is certainly true that these 

 sorts often decay and suddenly die, but we believe chiefly from the neg- 



* Theory of Horticulture. 



