20 
CULTURE OF THE PEACH.-BLACK-SEA WHEAT.-COONS, GREAT RAT KILLERS. 
ed him with those Ayrshire cows which he had 
taken from his herd, principally on account of not 
excelling as milkers. Now, no reference to milking 
qualities being cared for, either in the dam or the 
sire, of course their produce could not be expected 
generally to prove good milkers, though it seems one 
would occasionally leak out. Mr. Fleming, on the 
contrary, either by accident or design, must have ob¬ 
tained a Short-Horn bull from a milking family, 
which he bred to his deep milking Ayrshire cows. 
Of course the progeny of this cross would be good 
milkers, as a general rule. It seems in both events, 
that earlier maturity was obtained, a matter of very 
great consideration to the breeder. If the farmer can 
get an animal which will be fully matured and fit 
for market at two and a half or three years old, 
how much more profitable would that be than to 
wait from five to seven years, as he is now obliged 
to do with the native cattle ! But this subject was 
placed in such clear, forcible light, by a corres¬ 
pondent in our last volume, page 107, under the head 
of “ English Method of Fattening Cattle,” that it 
renders it unnecessary for us to dwell upon it any 
further at this time. 
CULTURE OF THE PEACH. 
In reading a communication a few months since, 
ot N. Longworth to the Cincinnati Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, I was surprised to find that this eminent cul¬ 
tivator had imbibed several material errors in rela¬ 
tion to the peach and its cultivation. He remarks, 
that the pit of a seedling peach will produce its 
kind, is well known,” &c. 
There certainly can be no distinction intended here 
r-etween a seedling or natural, and an inoculated 
jjeacli tree. All our varieties of peaches are seed¬ 
lings ; there can be no other way of originating new 
varieties of any fruit whatever. Budded or grafted 
rees bear fruit precisely the same as that of the tree 
from which the bud or graft was taken; suckers 
from the root will produce fruit similar to that of the 
stock from whose root they spring. Consequently, all 
lew. varieties must spring from seed, and the above 
Assertion cannot be correct, that seedlings will pro- 
■uce their kind, because, if such were the case, no 
ew varieties could arise. 
It is, as Professor Lindley truly remarks, an axiom 
,-i vegetable physiology, that seeds reproduce the 
sp-'des only, while buds will multiply the variety. 
That the pit of the Oldmixon peach will reproduce 
a peach is certain ; but it is equally uncertain that it 
will produce a tree, whose fruit can claim the most 
distant affinity to the Oldmixon variety. Although 
there is always this uncertainty in perpetuating a va¬ 
riety, avd it is the general nature of a seed to perpe¬ 
tuate the species only to which it belongs; yet there 
is always a visible tendency in it to produce a seed¬ 
ling more like its parent, than any other variety of 
the specie^. For example, suppose the pit was 
sown of an Oldmixon peach, if this peach stood 
isolated where the stigma of the flower that produced 
the pit could not have been impregnated with the 
pollen of other varieties, it would be more likely to 
produce a fruit, fine, large, and sweet, like its parent, 
than one that was small and worthless. Yet there 
would be no certainty of obtaining a fruit resembling 
the Oldmixon, although it might be equal, if not su¬ 
perior, to it in size and flavor. 
The remarks of N. Longworth quoted above, have, 
therefore, a tendency to mislead the tyro in horticul¬ 
ture, although such a result is undoubtedly very far 
from his wish or intention. I speak only of the 
present result of planting pits of seedling fruit. I 
have no doubt that by judicious experiments upon 
several generations of trees, one might be obtained 
whose fruit would produce a tree that would beai 
fruit very nearly, if not precisely similar to its parent. 
It is on the same principle that gardeners have ob¬ 
tained the seed of many fine varieties of vegetables, 
which, although varieties, will produce the same. 
Let a person plant the pit of the Oldmixon peach, 
and inoculate the tree that springs from it with the 
Oldmixon bud, let him plant the pit borne by this in¬ 
oculation, and bud the tree again with the Oldmixon 
in a similar manner, and repeat this process for seve¬ 
ral generations, the result, I think, would be, that a 
peach would be obtained whose pit would uniformly 
produce the Oldmixon variety. 
The cause of this result, I think, is founded upon 
true physiological principles. If the fruit of a tree 
produced from the pit of a budded peach partakes of 
the nature of the fruit, both of the stock and of the 
bud—and I have very little doubt that it does—then 
this “• breeding in and in” must gradually assimilate 
the natures of the bud and of the stock, until the 
fruit of the one is very nearly, if not quite, the same 
as that of the other. I hope some amateur who has 
leisure and taste in these things, will try the experi¬ 
ment, and inform the horticultural public of the re¬ 
sult. S. B. P. 
Commercial Garden and Nursery, Flushing , L. 1. 
BLACK-SEA WHEAT. 
When recently in New York, I saw at the rooms 
of the American Institute a great variety of samples 
of wheat from Mr. Harmon and others. We have 
in this vicinity a variety of wheat called the Black- 
sea, which has done remarkably well here since it 
has got into general use. It has thus far resisted the 
attack of the fly and rust, the two great hindrances 
of wheat-growing in this section. Previous to the 
last year this country has had to depend upon the 
west for its flour; now there is a surplus. The best 
kind of wheat for seed can be had here for $Jt per 
bushel. If a good chance offers I will send you a 
sample of the Black-sea Wheat, and one for the 
rooms of the Institute, if you will take the trouble to 
hand it in there. 
Samuel Everts. 
Cornwall , Ft., Dec. 9th, 1844. 
We shall be pleased to receive the samples of 
wheat spoken of. 
COONS, GREAT RAT KILLERS. 
I could recommend nothing better in the place ol 
Mr. Affleck’s cats, than a good lot of pet coons. 
They are much preferable to cats, to kill, eat, and 
drive away rats. They can stand any climate with¬ 
out being subject to convulsions. Coons are the 
best remedy to keep rats away of anything I have 
yet heard of. I will insure Mr. Affleck after he has 
a coon or two on his place a few days, there will 
