Jnly 16, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
37 
COMING EVENTS 
16 
th 
Chiswick Horticultural Show. Helensburgh (Roses). 
17 
F 
Sheffield (two days). 
18 
S 
Wirral (Roses). 
19 
SUN 
Seventh Sunday after Trinity. 
20 
M 
21 
TU 
Newcastle (Staffs). 
22 
W 
Newcastle-on-Tyne. Great Haseley (Oxon). 
PEACH FAILURES. 
FTER a season so hot and dry as 1884, ripening 
the wood, a good Peach crop was expected this 
year. From my own observation and the ac¬ 
counts reaching me from other localities the 
crop is by no means prodigious, indeed both 
indoors and outdoors it is in some gardens a 
failure. One correspondent states he has grown 
Peaches for over twenty years and not had a 
failure in his early houses until this season, and 
as this has occurred in two houses of over 60 feet each the 
loss is considerable. Another correspondent states there is 
a great promise of fruit this year of all kinds except Peaches, 
which are a failure even under glass, and several others 
write similarly, so that there is a remarkable coincidence of 
facts with my own experience. 
The wood of Peaches and Nectarines was very firm in 
the autumn of last year, but I noticed the buds that give 
fruit were neither so numerous nor so prominent as they are 
often seen after a less hot and dry season. In spring the 
bloom buds swelled tardily, the blossoms expanded weakly; 
and though they were better under glass than against walls, 
I noticed particularly that the bees did not visit the flowers. 
Although making comments unfavourable to the setting of 
the fruit, I was only laughed at for my seemingly unjusti¬ 
fiable prognostications. The bees had not found them out, 
and they did not, neither would they, have anything to do 
with the flowers of the trees against walls. Why did the 
bees visit the Apricot blossoms and almost entirely neglect 
those of the Peach and Nectarine ? Mark also the difference. 
Apricots have a crop of fruit, Peaches and Nectarines have 
not. Clearly the blossoms contained no nectar, and unless 
this be present will the bees come for pollen alone ? I fancy 
not. Peameal has a powerful aroma sufficiently attractive, 
and so have flowers if there be nectar. 
Whilst on this subject I may mention that the bees were 
very busy on Pear blossoms much more than on Plums. The 
former are a full crop; indeed it is a Pear year, but Plums 
are only thin, except on a north aspect. Apples, again, were 
only moderately visited, and though the crop may be good 
it is not equal to the promise as indicated by the blossom. 
Cherry blossom was also much in request by bees, and the 
crop is full. Similar remarks apply to Gooseberries—plenty 
of blossom, the merry hum of bees, and heavy crops of fruit. 
I might go further. Suffice it to note that though Crocuses 
bloomed splendidly they were almost neglected by the bees, 
and they have not a pod of seed where there were a hundred 
last year. Hyacinths, on the other hand, were very much 
worked by the bees, and the seeds—we have mostly single 
varieties—were abundant. Now I make the deduction that 
the blossoms of the Peach and Nectarine were not perfect; 
they wanted nectar, and this nectar attracts insects, which 
liberate the pollen if not brushing it directly on the pistils. 
I go further, and state that if this nectar be absent and no 
insects visit the blossom the fruit will not set even if artificial 
impregnation be practised, as was the case with the Peaches 
No. 2G4. —Vol. XI., Third Series. 
under glass. This is not an isolated instance, as I have 
noticed it on former occasions, not only with Peaches, but 
also with Strawberries in pots, and even with Grapes, the 
glutinous matter on the stigmas of the latter not being a 
sign of imperfect organisation, though it may be an obstacle 
to fertilisation unless removed by some natural or artifi¬ 
cial agent, the act of removal being the means by which 
impregnation is effected. If, on the other hand, the glu¬ 
tinous matter be absent, as it not un frequently is in Sweet¬ 
water, Buckland Sweetwater, Muscat Hamburgh (Black 
Muscat), and other Grapes when forced early, no pollen or 
any amount of attempted impregnation will cause the berries 
to set. I therefore conclude that the nectar is an important 
secretion essential to the support of the ovules and necessary 
to fertilisation. I suppose the nectar to be a consequence 
of the elaboration of the sap in the petals, and that these are 
quite as important to the flower as the leaves are to the 
tree—develope according to their formation in embryo. We 
must trace the cause anterior to the blossoming—viz., fruit 
buds imperfectly developed in embryo, or to unfavourable 
climatic conditions at the time of flowering. This last will 
not hold good, as the result is the same under artificial and 
therefore genial atmospheric conditions as with trees exposed 
to the weather outdoors. 
If we may not attribute the non-setting to the weather, 
and we certainly had no frost of consequence, we are obliged 
to accept the fact of the cause being in the immature develop¬ 
ment of the buds, and in some essential not being present in 
sufficient quantity to effect their perfect maturation in the 
preceding season. This I consider is a clear case of prema¬ 
ture ripening of the wood, a condition well known to all 
forcers of early Peaches, and some varieties exhibit this 
tendency in a more highly marked degree than others. For 
instance, varieties with large flowers, such as Early York, 
Grosse Mignonne, and Noblesse, are much subject to prema¬ 
ture bud development, and to casting their buds when they 
should be swelling, whilst the small-flowered varieties, such 
as Royal George, are not so liable either to premature bud- 
development or to casting the buds. 
More failures in Peach-cultivation are due to drought 
than to anything else. We form well-drained borders, and 
if we have ceased to form them rich, we make them so by 
surface-dressings and matter in liquid form, which in an 
ordinary season may be all very well, but in a season like the 
last the moisture was not proportionate to the greater evapo¬ 
ration. A large surface of Peach foliage exposed to the sun 
parts with an immense quantity of water, and it has to be 
abstracted from the soil; therefore the water supply must be 
proportionate to the evaporation. Want of water is the 
greatest drawback to successful practice, and it is the one 
thing most needed, or has been neglected when Peach trees 
cast their buds. It is no use soaking the border when the 
house is closed, if the trees have been allowed to become dry 
after the cessation of growth—it will only bring the buds off 
in a shower. It is folly to give water in lessened quantity 
when the fruit is ripening, under the assumption that dryness 
improves flavour, for it is not cutting short the supplies, but 
the increased evaporation which a circulation of warm dry 
air provokes, that imparts flavour, and to keep the soil dry 
after the crop is cleared, or even when the foliage is maturing, 
is to prevent the perfect development of the buds, and ensure 
their developing into imperfect blossoms. An insufficient 
supply of water is not only a source of danger to the crop— 
once only may imperil it—and to keep the roots dry or allow 
them to get dry after the crop is cleared, jeopardises if it 
does not prove fatal to the future one. 
In the case of trees against walls there is a similarity of 
circumstances. If the season be hot and dry, the soil, from 
the increased evaporation, becomes dry as dust, and the sup¬ 
plies are not given in proportion ; indeed the watering and 
mulching of fruit borders is much neglected in gardens, some¬ 
times because the water supply is inadequate to the increased 
No. 1920.— Yol. LXXIIL, Old Series. 
