4 BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 
variations were so slight that all of the peaches were very good. 
Seedlings from the Magdalene and the Mallacatoon always pro- 
duced fruit of the same quality as that of the parent tree. A\l- 
though planted in the vicinity of other varieties they have never 
been known to cross. 
‘¢ When Mr. Reuben Hersey, the son of Isaiah, and the grand- 
father of the present writer, built his house, he planted seed 
obtained from his father’s peach trees; and when his son, Samuel 
F., my father, built a house, he planted peach seed obtained 
from his father’s peach orchard. In the spring, when I was four 
years old, my father staked out a small plot of land for me to tse 
for growing such fruit and vegetables as I chose. My first effort 
was to grow a few peach trees from seed which my father had 
gathered from his peach trees the autumn before, and pressed into 
the ground to keep them in good condition until planting time the 
following spring. My first orchard had three peach trees in it, 
which commenced to produce fruit when they were four years old. 
Since that time I have been able to produce peaches every year 
without exception. My father’s and my grandfather’s houses are 
both between my house and that which was my greatgrandfather’s. 
The distance between the two houses last named is less than sixty 
rods. These facts are given to show that seedling peaches from 
the same stock imported from Europe have been grown in the same 
locality for a period of more than one hundred and fifty years. 
‘¢ One variety, the White Magdalene, remains strong and healthy, 
appearing to have become perfectly acclimated to this region. The 
other two varieties have dropped out, — one intentionally, and the 
other, the Hersey Rareripe, for want of information that has been 
very dearly bought. The details are as follows: A few years 
after the introduction of budded trees on stocks from seed grown 
in the Southern States (1845), the peach ‘ yellows’ appeared in 
Hingham. I had been accustomed not to grow on my land any 
peach trees except from seed grown on my own seedling trees, 
and for many years abundant crops of peaches were borne on 
trees that were entirely free from the ‘ yellows.’ 
‘* One tree, of the Hersey Rareripe variety, grew within twenty- 
five feet of a neighbor’s peach orchard, every tree of which, though 
dying with the ‘ yellows,’ was permitted to stand until not a living 
sprout was left. So far as I was able to see, my tree, although 
