486 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



middle, southern, and western States they grow, 

 and produce the heaviest crops in every garden 

 and orchard. " Thousands of acres," Downing 

 observes, " in New Jersey, Delaware, and Mary- 

 land, are devoted to this crop for the supply of 

 the markets of New York and Philadelphia ; 

 and we have seen, in seasons of great abundance, 

 whole sloop-loads of fruit of second quality, or 

 slightly decayed, thrown into the North River 

 in a single morning. Many growers in New 

 Jersey have orchards of from 10,000 to 20,000 

 trees of different ages, and send to market, in 

 good seasons, as many bushels of fruit from the 

 bearing trees." Of the peaches of China we have 

 received several — the flat peach, remarkable for 

 its singular shape, and the more recently intro- 

 duced Shanghae, for its enormous size. 



Propagation. — The peach and nectarine are 

 propagated in Europe, like all other fruit-bearing 

 trees, by seed, when the object sought for is new 

 or improved varieties ; in America, often by seed 

 for general planting, although their best pomo- 

 logists condemn the practice. In the middle, 

 southern, and western States the peach flourishes 

 with little care, many growers having peach or- 

 chards containing from ten thousand to twenty 

 thousand trees, many of them from seed ; and 

 thousands of acres in Maryland, Delaware, and 

 New Jersey are occupied with peach orchards for 

 the supply of the Philadelphia and New York 

 markets alone. They also raise the peach from 

 seed, for the purpose of stocks, because, as Mr 

 Downing, an American author, remarks, " The 

 peach is the most easily propagated of all fruit 

 trees. A stone planted in the autumn will vege- 

 tate the ensuing spring, grow 3 or 4 feet high, 

 and may be budded in August or September. 

 Two years from this time, if left undisturbed, it 

 will usually produce a small crop of fruit, and 

 the next season bear most abundantly, unless the 

 growth is over-luxuriant." In Britain the case 

 is otherwise, the peach-stock being in much less 

 repute — the plum, which is a much hardier stock, 

 and better fitted for a cold and variable climate, 

 being preferred. The stocks, therefore, employed 

 for the peach and nectarine in Britain are the 

 Brompton stock, mussel-plum, pear-plum, apri- 

 cot stock, and the almond ; and, when very 

 dwarf trees are required, the Mirabelle plum is 

 sometimes chosen. Of these the pear-plum stock 

 is preferred for the French peaches, and most of 

 our finer sorts ; and next to it the mussel-plum is 

 in general preferred for English peaches (vide 

 p. 328). In France, the almond stock is pre- 

 ferred by some growers with a view to check the 

 over- luxuriance of the peach ; and Knight recom- 

 mends its use for the finer varieties of peaches 

 and apricots, and also as a preventive of mil- 

 dew. The plum stock is preferred for clayey 

 soils, and the almond for such as are light, shal- 

 low, or chalky. 



In regard to rearing the peach and nectarine 

 from seed, at least in Britain, little attention has 

 been paid to the subject, although several excel- 

 lent sorts have been so produced (vide Select 

 List). The late Thos. A. Knight held the opinion 

 that the peach, if reared from seed, would in 

 course of successive generations become so 

 hardy, or naturalised, as to succeed as an open 



standard in many parts of Britain. This opinion 

 has not, however, been borne out by experience, 

 nor has much attention been bestowed on the 

 subject. He also observes, that it may always be 

 made to produce fruit, when three years old, from 

 seed, and thinks it possible to bring it to that 

 state at the end of a single year. In rearing the 

 peach from seed, the process is to bury the 

 stones in autumn in thick layers covered with 

 earth. Early in spring the stones are taken out 

 of the earth, cracked, and the kernels sown in 

 rows in a mellow loamy soil, to the depth of 

 about an inch. In September following they are 

 fit for budding, which is performed within 6 

 inches of the ground. Some English cultivators 

 sow the seeds of the peach and apricot at the 

 bottom of walls in the places where they are to 

 remain, and bud them in July of the same year, 

 or graft them in March the spring following. In 

 grafting the peach a sub-variety of splice-grafting 

 {vide p. 331, fig. 101) is very successfully fol- 

 lowed, although, in the hands of an expert 

 operator, almost any of the methods noticed 

 under the head Propagation by Grafting, p. 330 

 to 333, may be adopted. Budding is the mode 

 of propagation most generally followed in our 

 British nurseries, and is performed in July or 

 August, inserting the bud within 6 inches of the 

 bottom of the stock for dwarf- trained trees, and 

 from 3 to 5 feet high for standards or riders. 

 The bud will shoot the following spring, and 

 under favourable circumstances produce a shoot 

 from 3 to 4 feet in length during the first sum- 

 mer. In spring the top of the stock should be 

 cut off close above the bud, and the wound 

 smoothed, that the bark may heal over it. These 

 shoots are, however, when strong, often stopped 

 in June the season after budding, or in the March 

 following, to four, five, or six eyes, from each of 

 which a lateral shoot is produced, which forms 

 the first part of the structure of the future tree. 

 The shoots of the second and third years' growth 

 are shortened by pinching their tops off to three 

 or four eyes, according to their strength, in June, 

 to cause the production of another set of lateral 

 branches, or headed back with the knife in 

 March following to from four to six eyes. The 

 number of eyes left, in both cases, must ever 

 depend on the state of the trees, whether they 

 are growing luxuriantly or the reverse. In the 

 former case, more buds should be left than in 

 the latter. Some, however, pinch off the point 

 of the shoot produced by the bud when it has 

 attained the length of 6 or 8 inches. Five buds 

 are then allowed to extend, and these again have 

 their points pinched off, leaving from 5 to 6 

 inches of shoot, each of which is disbudded, 

 leaving only two shoots from each. Under fa- 

 vourable circumstances and vigorous growth, a 

 fan-shaped tree is thus produced in one season. 



Situation and soil. — The peach and nectarine 

 not only require the best situation our gardens 

 afford, but, in the greater part of Britain, require 

 the protection of walls also. As a general rule, 

 they should occupy stations on those walls hav- 

 ing a southern exposure, a few points to east or 

 west of south making little difference. In many 

 parts of England they are grown to great perfec- 

 tion on direct east and west walls, but seldom 



