EARLY PEACHES AND NECTARINES. 



3G9 



•and the fruit was quite as large as I have seen it on any previous 

 occasion. I am fully aware that in favourable summers these 

 Peaches ripen much earlier, but I think, looking at the character 

 of the weather that prevailed at that time, a Peach that will 

 .ripen as early as the second week in August is worthy of having 

 the fact recorded." 



Discussion. 



Mr. George Bunyard, of Maidstone, referred in very com- 

 plimentary terms to the useful work which Mr. T. Francis Kivers 

 arid his father had done for fruit culture, and then proceeded to 

 make some remarks as to the behaviour in his county of the 

 •early Peaches named in Mr. Rivers' paper. He stated that 

 Early Rivers and Early Louise were very tender and gene- 

 Tally failed on open walls in Kent, as did also the fine (in- 

 door) Peach, Dr. Hogg. Early Beatrice was small, wanting in 

 flavour, and of a thin, wiry growth, which made it tender in a 

 spring frost ; but the advent of the American Peaches, Amsden 

 June and Alexander, and the more recent Waterloo, made it 

 •unnecessary to grow Beatrice. Mr. Bunyard considered Waterloo 

 the best of this trio, and it succeeds admirably on walls, in pots, 

 and as a forcing variety. It is six weeks before Royal George 

 in the same house. Amsden was not such a good cropper as 

 Alexander, but richer in flavour. These kinds were closely fol- 

 lowed by the American, Hale's Early, which, with Rivers' Early 

 York, Alfred, and Victoria, kept up a succession until Dagmar 

 -came in, when the mid-season varieties were ripening. All these 

 do well in the open air. Mr. Bunyard remarked that although 

 these Peaches did not possess the exquisite flavour and texture 

 of the Royal George, they were quite indispensable, and under 

 good culture were admirable. He feared the fine examples of 

 Peaches which were presented from under glass had often led 

 planters to adopt them on open walls, with unfortunate results : 

 many of the late kinds being too late in ripening for our 

 climate. Mr. Bunyard considered that the Lord Napier 

 Nectarine raised by Mr. Rivers was the finest of all the seed- 

 ling fruits of this class, being hardy in all modes of culture. 

 Goldoni and Dryden were also stated to be very fine. 



