THE PEACH. 
6Ul 
Let us now look a little more closely into tlie nature of tliis 
enfeebled state of the peach tree-, which we call the Yellows. 
Every good gardener well knows that if he desires to raise a 
healthy and vigorous seedling plant, he must select the seed 
from a parent plant that is itself decidedly healthy. Lindley 
justly and concisely remarks, “ All seeds will not equally pro- 
duce 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, de- 
clares it as his opinion that the more frequently a tree is repro- 
duced continuously from seed, the more feeble and short-lived 
is the seedling produced. 
Still more, we all know that certain peculiarities of constitu 
tion, or habit, can be propagated by grafting, by slips, and even 
by seeds. Thus the varieyated foliage, which is a disease of 
some sort, is propagated for ever by budding, and the disposi- 
tion to mildew of some kinds of peaches is continued almost 
always in the seedlings. That the peach tree is peculiarly con 
stant 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 sow- 
ing of the seeds of an enfeebled stock of peaches would naturally 
produce a sickly and diseased race of trees ? 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 eaused by a 
full crop. The great natural luxuriance 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 
cnfeebled.f 
* Theory of Horticulture. 
\ The miserably enfeebled state of some kinds of pears on the sea-coast, 
arising from unsuitable climate and the continual propagation by grafting 
from the same debilitated stock, is only a fair parallel to the Yellows in 
the peach tree 
6 
