CULITVATION OF THE PEACH. 
157 
be brought into contact with it. These little 
operations must be done with a careful hand, 
so as not to rupture any part of the blossom 
which is left to produce the fruit ; not more 
than one blossom should ultimately be left on 
the branch, and that the most perfect and 
healthy that can be selected ; the branch thus 
operated on should be immediately marked 
with the necessary information respecting the 
cross, so that on sowing the seed which is 
produced, and testing its future merits, no 
point connected with its origin may depend 
on the unaided memory of the operator ; the 
gauze should not be removed till the fruit is 
fairly set, and is swelling off, and this, of 
course, during its growth, must receive the 
usual care, in order to render it as perfect as 
it can possibly be. This is a single instance ; 
and the same principle should be followed out 
with each, whether it be a solitary case or 
otherwise. When the . fruit is ripened, the 
stone (drupe) it contains must be preserved ; 
it encloses the seed ; early in the ensuing 
spring it should be sown, and the young plant 
grown carefully in a pot; in the summer, 
Avhen it has made its growth, and the buds 
are plump and matured, one or two should be 
taken, and inserted into the bearing branches 
of some established healthy tree ; usually, after 
one season's growth in this situation, they 
produce fruit, and the quality of the seedling 
variety can thus be fairly ascertained. Were 
they permitted to grow on without budding, 
they would be some years in producing fruit, 
and, consequently, the merit or demerit of the 
variety could not till then be ascertained. 
Thus much of raising new varieties. 
The process of raising seedling plants for 
stocks, on which to bud the established vari- 
eties, is a less tedious process ; the stones, or 
seeds, should be collected in any required 
quantity, and they may be buried in a heap 
of sand, out of doors, until the spring. In 
March sow them thinly in a bed of light soil, 
and the following season transplant them into 
nursery rows, in a free open soil, placing them 
rather closely together ; the following season 
this operation may be repeated, giving them 
a greater space to grow in, and they may 
then be budded, as soon as the proper season 
arrives, or when they may be required. 
By Budding. — The most general practice 
of propagating the Peach-tree is by the ope- 
ration of budding. It is not necessary here 
to attempt a description of the practice, as it 
has been so frequently and so fully ex- 
plained ; and further, the operation in itself 
being similar on whatever plant it may be 
practised. It may, however, be useful to 
notice the different kinds of stocks, or stems, 
on which the Peach is sometimes inoculated, 
or budded, since it is found to be of some 
importance to adapt these to any peculiar soil 
or situation where the Peach may be required 
to be planted. The stocks which are princi- 
pally employed are the various kinds known 
as plum-stocks ; of these, the muscle, the pear, 
and the free-plum stocks, are those most in use; 
sometimes the almond is used as a stock, and 
at other times the plants obtained by sowing 
the seeds of Peaches and Nectarines. In 
forming an estimate of the relative value of 
these for the purpose of bringing the Peach 
to its perfection, there are two principal points 
which it is usual and necessary to keep in 
view ; and these are, the adaptation of the 
stock to the variety which is worked upon it, 
and the adaptation of the stock to the soil and 
situation in which it is to be planted. The 
latter is the least important of the two ; for, 
it may at once be assumed that no Peach-tree 
should be planted, in any situation, unless the 
soil has been prepared and rendered fit for its 
growth ; and, therefore, those stocks which 
practice and experience have proved to be 
best adapted to the nature and constitution of 
the Peach, and its varieties, respectively, ought, 
in every case, to be preferred, in order to 
secure permanently healthy plants. These 
stocks are those of the muscle and the pear- 
plwtfi. When worked on the almond or the 
free-peach stocks, the growth of the plants is 
often very satisfactory and promising in its 
appearance ; but, in most cases, the trees are 
short-lived : these stocks are best adapted to 
light and dry soils ; and, to cases where very 
early fruitfulness is desired, even at the sacri- 
fice of the permanency of the plants: the free- 
plum stocks, that is, those which are raised 
from sowing the kernels of the plum, are ob- 
jectionable, on account of their inducing, by 
their own vigorous growth, an undue luxuri- 
ance in the engrafted plants, which renders it 
difficult either to bring or retain the trees in 
a fruit-bearing state. 
There is one very material objection to the 
use of seedling plants, of any kind, as stocks, 
for they are liable to considerable variation in 
their constitution, and therefore it is impos- 
sible to adapt either the particular varie- 
ties, or the circumstances of culture, to the 
growth of the plants, in the infant stages of 
their existence, in consequence of an igno- 
rance of what their exact nature and capa- 
bilities are. On the other hand, when a 
permanent variety is propagated by means 
which renders it unvarying in its characteris- 
tics, the nature of its growth can then be fully 
estimated ; and as the culture of the Peach- 
tree involves considerable attention to the 
adaptation and preparation of the soil, it is 
not too much to assume that, in all cases, it is 
possible to provide for the permanent healthi- 
ness of those plants, with the nature of whose 
