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PEACH

This native of Persia is one of the most healthy and universally-favorite fruits. In its native state, it was hardly suitable for eating, resembling an almond more than our present fine peaches. Perhaps no other fruit exhibits so wide a difference in the products of seeds from the same tree. All the fine varieties are what we call chance products of seeds, not one out of a thousand of which deserved further cultivation. The prevailing opinion is, that planting the seeds is not a certain method of propagating a given variety; hence the general practice of budding (which see). Others assert that there are permanent varieties, that usually produce the same from the seed, when not allowed to mix in the blossoms. Some prefer to raise the trees for their peach-orchards from seed, thinking them longer-lived and more healthy. Whole peaches planted when taken from the tree, or the pits planted before having become dry, are said to be much more certain to produce the same fruit. We know an instance in which the fruit of an early Crawford peach, thus planted, could not be distinguished from those that grew on a budded tree in the same orchard. One of the difficulties in reproducing the same from seed, is the great difficulty in getting the seed of any variety pure. We everywhere have so many varieties of fruit-trees in the same orchard, that the seeds of no one can be pure; they mix in the blossoms. On this account, the surest method of perpetuating a variety is by budding. This tree is of rapid growth, often bearing the third year from the seed, and producing abundantly the fifth. The peach-tree is often called thrifty when its growth is very luxuriant, but tender and unhealthy, perishing in the following winter. A moderate, steady, hardy growth is most profitable. The following directions, though brief, are complete:—

Raising Seedlings.—Dry the pits in the shade; put them away till the last of winter; then soak them two days in water, and spread them on some place in the garden where water will not stand, and cover them an inch deep with wet sand, and leave them to freeze. When about time to plant them (which is early corn-planting time), take them up and select all those that are opened by the frost, and that are beginning to germinate, and plant in rows four feet apart and one foot in the row. These will grow and be ready for budding considerably earlier than those not opened by frost. Crack the others on a wooden block, by striking their side-edge with a hammer; you thus avoid injury to the germ that is endangered by striking the end. Plant these in rows like the others, but only six inches apart in the row, as they will not all germinate. Plant them on rich soil covering an inch or two deep. Keep them clear of weeds, and they will be ready for budding from August 15th to September 10th, according to latitude or season. In a dry season, when everything matures early, budding must not be deferred as long as in a wet season.

For full directions for budding, see our article on that subject.

Transplanting.—Perhaps no other fruit-tree suffers so much from transplanting when too large. This should always be done, after one year's growth, from the bud. The best time for transplanting is the spring in northern latitudes subject to hard frosts, and in autumn in warmer climates.

Soil and Location.—All intelligent fruit-growers are aware that these exert a great influence upon the size, quality, and quantity, of all varieties of fruits. An accurate description of a variety in one climate will not always identify it in another. Some few varieties are nearly permanent and universal, but most are adapted to particular localities, and need a process of acclimation to adapt them to other soils and situations. Light sandy soils are usually regarded best for the peach: it is only so because nineteen out of twenty cultivators will not take pains to suitably prepare other soils. Some of the best peaches we have ever seen grew on the richest Illinois prairie, and others on the limestone bluffs of the Ohio river. Thorough drainage is indispensable for the peach, on all but very light, porous soils: with such drainage, peaches will do best on soil best adapted to growing corn and potatoes. Bones, bonedust, lime, ashes, stable-manure, and charcoal, are the best applications to the soil of a peach-orchard. Whoever grows peaches should put at least half a bushel of fine charcoal in the earth in which he sets each tree. Mix it well with the soil, and the tree will grow better, and the fruit be larger and finer, for a dozen years. Any good soil, well drained and manured with these articles, will produce great crops of peaches. For the location of peach-orchards, see our general remarks on "Location of Fruit-trees." But we would repeat here the direction to choose a northern exposure, in climates subject to late frosts. Elevations are always favorable, as are also the shores of all bodies of water. In our remarks on location, we have shown by facts the great value of hills, so high as to be useless for any other purpose. Between Pittsburgh and the mouth of the Ohio river, there are enough high elevations, now useless, to supply all the cities within fifty miles of the rivers, down to New Orleans, with the best of peaches every year. In no year will they ever be cut off by frost on those hills. Warm exposures, with a little winter protection, will secure good peaches in climates not adapted to them. In some parts of France, they grow large quantities for market by training them against walls, where they do not flourish in the open field. By this practice, and by enclosures and acclimation, the growth of this excellent fruit may be extended to the coldest parts of the United States.

Transplanting—should be performed with care, as in the case of all other fruit-trees. Every injured root should be cut off smooth from the under side, slanting out from the tree. Leave the roots, as nearly as possible, in the position in which they were before. Set the tree an inch lower than it stood in the nursery; it saves the danger of the roots getting uncovered, and of too strong action of the atmosphere on the roots, in a soil so loose. The opposite is often recommended, viz., to allow the tree in its new location to stand an inch or two higher than before; but we are sure, from repeated trials, that it is wrong. Shake the fine earth as closely around the roots as possible, mulch well, and pour on a pailful of tepid water, if it be rather a dry time, and the tree will be sure to live and make a good growth the first year. When a peach-tree is transplanted, after one year's growth from the bud, it should have the top cut off within eighteen inches or two feet of the ground, and all the limbs cut off at half their length. This will induce the formation of a full, large head. A low, full-branching head is always best on a peach-tree.

Pruning is perhaps the most important matter in successful peach culture. The fruit is borne wholly on wood of the previous year's growth. Hence a tree that has the most of that growth, in a mature state, and properly situated, will bear the most and the finest fruit. A tree left to its natural state, with no pruning but of a few of the lower limbs from the main trunk, will soon exhibit a collection of long naked limbs, without foliage, except near their extremities (see the cut overleaf). In this case fruit will be too thick on what little bearing wood there is, and it should be thinned. But very few cultivators even attend to that. The fruit is consequently small, and it weakens the growth of the young wood above, for next year's fruiting, and thus tree and fruit are perpetually deteriorating.

Observe a shoot of young peachwood, you will see near its base, leaf-buds. On the middle there are many blossom-buds, and on the top, leaf-buds again. The tendency of sap is to the extremity. Hence the upper leaf-buds will put out at once. And for their growth, and the maturity of the excessive fruit on the middle, the power of the sap is so far exhausted, that the leaf-buds at the base do not grow. Hence when the fruit is removed, nothing is left below the terminal shoots, but a bare pole. This is the condition in which we find most peach-trees.

For this there is a certain preventive. It consists in shortening in, by cutting off in the month of September, from a third to a half of the current season's growth. If the top be large, cut off one half the length of the new wood. If it be less vigorous and rank, and you fear you will not have room for a fair crop of peaches, cut off but one third. This heading-in is sometimes recommended to be done in the spring. For forming a head in a young tree the spring is better. But to mature the wood, and increase the quantity, and improve the quality of the fruit, September is much the best.

Such shortening in early in September, directs the sap to maturing the wood, already formed and developing fruit-buds, instead of promoting the growth of an undue quantity of young and tender wood, to be destroyed by the winter, or to hinder the growth of the fruit of the next season. This heading-in process, with these young shoots, is most easily performed with pruning shears, with wooden handles, of a length suited to the height of the tree.

But a work to precede this annual shortening-in, is the original formation of a head to a peach-tree. Take a tree a year old from the bud, and cut it down to within two and a half feet from the ground. Below that numerous strong shoots will come out. Select three vigorous ones and let them grow as they please, carefully pinching off all the rest. In the fall you will have a tree of three good strong branches. In the next spring cut off these three branches, one half. Below these cuts, branches will start freely. Select one vigorous shoot to continue the limb, and another to form a new branch. Check the growth of the shoots below, by cutting off their ends, but do not rub them off, as they will form fruit branches. At the close of the season you will have a tree with six main branches, and some small ones for fruit, on the older wood. Repeat this process the third year, and you have a tree with twelve main branches, and plenty smaller ones for fruit. All these small branches on the old wood, should be shortened in half their length, to cause the leaf-buds near their base to start, so as to produce large numbers of young shoots. Continue this as long as you please, and make just as large a head and just such a form as you may wish, being careful only to control the shape of the top so as to let the sun and air freely into every part.

Trees thus trained may be planted thick enough to allow four hundred to stand on an acre, and will bear an abundance of the finest fruit, and all low enough to be easily picked. This method of training is much better than allowing the tree to shoot out on all sides from the ground: in that case, the branches are apt to split down and perish. This system of heading-in freely every year, preserves the life and health of the tree remarkably. Many of the finest peach-trees in France are from thirty to sixty years old, and some a hundred. We may, in this country, have peach-trees live fifty years, in the most healthy bearing condition. By trimming in this way, and carrying out fully this system, some have thrifty-looking peach-trees, more than a foot in diameter, bearing the very best of fruit. It is sheer neglect that causes our peach-orchards to perish after having borne from three to six years. Let every man who plants a peach-tree remember, that this system of training will make his tree live long, be healthy, grow vigorously, and bear abundantly.

Diseases of peach-trees have been a matter of much speculation. The result is, that the hope of the peach-grower is mainly in preventives.

The Yellows is usually regarded as a disease. Imagination has invented many causes of this evil. Some suppose it to be produced by small insects; others that it is in the seed. Again, it is ascribed to the atmosphere. It has been supposed to be propagated in many ways—by trimming a healthy tree with a knife that had been used on a diseased one; by contagion in the atmostphere, as the measles or small-pox; by impregnation from the pollen, through the agency of winds or bees; by the migration of small insects; or by planting diseased seeds, or budding from diseased trees. This great diversity of opinion leaves room to doubt whether the yellows in peach-trees be a disease at all, or only a symptom of general decay. The symptoms, as given in all the fruit-books, are only such as would be natural from decay and death of the tree, from any cause whatever. This may result from neglect to supply the soil with suitable manures, and to trim trees properly, and especially from over-bearing. This view of the case is more probable, from the fact that none pretend to have found a remedy. All advise to remove the tree thus affected at once, root and branch. We have seen the following treatment of such trees tried with marked success. Cut off a large share of the top, as when you would renew an old, neglected tree; lay the large roots bare, making a sort of basin around the body of the tree, and pour in three pailfuls of boiling water: the tree will start anew and do well. This is an excellent application to an old, failing peach-tree. The sure preventive of the yellows is, planting seeds of healthy trees, budding from the most vigorous, heading-in well, supplying appropriate manures, and general good cultivation.

Curled Leaves is another evil among peach-trees, occurring before the leaves are fully grown, and causing them to fall off after two or three weeks. Other leaves will put out, but the fruit is destroyed, and the general health of the tree injured. Elliott says the curl of the leaf is produced by the punctures of small insects. One kind of curled leaf is, but not this. But we have no doubt that Barry's theory is the correct one, viz., that it is the effect of sudden changes of the weather. We have noticed the curled leaf in orchards where the trees were so close together as to guard each other. On the side where the cold wind struck them, we noticed they were badly affected; while on the warm side, and in the centre where they were protected by the others, they exhibited very few signs of the curl. In western New York, unusual cold east winds always produce the curled leaves, on trees much exposed: hence, the only remedy is the best protection you can give, by location, &c.

Mildew is a minute fungus growing on the ends of tender shoots of certain varieties, checking their growth, and producing other bad effects. Syringe the trees with a weak solution of nitre, one ounce in a gallon of water, which will destroy the fungus and invigorate the tree.

The Borer has been the great enemy of the peach-tree, since about the close of the last century. The female insect, that produces the worms, deposites her eggs under rough bark, near the surface of the ground. This is done mostly in July, but occasionally from June to October. The eggs are laid in small punctures, and covered with a greenish glue; in a few days they come out, a small white worm, and eat through the bark where it is tender, just at, or a little below, the surface of the ground; they eat under the bark, between that and the wood, and, consuming a little of each, they frequently girdle the tree; as they grow larger, they perforate the solid wood; when about a year old, they make a cocoon just below the surface of the ground, change into a chrysalis state, and shortly come out a winged insect, to deposite fresh eggs. But the practical part of all this is the remedy: keep the ground clean around the trees, and rub off frequently all the rough bark; place around each tree half a peck of air-slaked lime, and the borer will not attack it. This should be placed there on the first of May, and be spread over the ground on the first of October; refuse tobacco-stems, from the cigar-makers, or any other offensive substance, as hen-manure, salt and ashes, &c., will answer the same purpose. We should recommend the annual cultivation of a small piece of ground in tobacco, for use around peach-trees. We have found it very successful against the borer, and it is an excellent manure; applied two or three times during the season, it proves a perfect remedy, and is in no way injurious, as an excessive quantity of lime might be.

Leaf Insects.—There are several varieties, which cause the leaves to curl and prematurely fall. This kind of curled leaf differs from the one described as the result of sudden changes and cold wind; that appears general wherever the cold wind strikes the tree, while this only affects a few leaves occasionally, and those surrounded by healthy leaves. The remedy is to syringe them with offensive mixtures, as tobacco-juice, or sprinkle them when wet with fine, air-slaked lime.

Varieties.—Their name is legion, and they are rapidly increasing, and their synonyms multiplying. A singular fact, in most of our fruit-books, is a minute description of useless kinds, and such descriptions of those that they call good, as not one in ten thousand cultivators will ever try to master—they are worse than useless, except to an occasional amateur cultivator.

Elliott, in his fruit-book, divides peaches into three classes: the first is for general cultivation; under this class he describes thirty-one varieties, with ninety-eight synonyms. His second class is for amateur cultivators, and includes sixty-nine varieties, with eighty-four synonyms. His third class, which he says are unworthy of further cultivation, describes fifty-four varieties, with seventy-seven synonyms. Cole gives sixty-five varieties, minutely described, and many of them pronounced worthless. In Hooker's Western Fruit-Book, we have some eighty varieties, only a few of which are regarded worthy of cultivation. Downing gives us one hundred and thirty-three varieties, with about four hundred synonyms. In all these works the descriptions are minute. The varieties of serrated leaves, the glandless, and some having globose glands on the leaves, and others with reniform glands. Then we have the color of the fruit in the shade and in the sun, which will, of course, vary with every degree of sun or shade. We submit the opinion that those books would have possessed much more value, had they only described the best mode of cultivating peaches, without having mentioned a single variety, thus leaving each cultivator to select the best he could find. Had they given a plain description of ten, or certainly of not more than fifteen varieties, those books would have been far more valuable for the people. We give a small list, including all we think it best to cultivate. Perhaps confining our selection to half a dozen varieties would be a further improvement:—

1. The first of all peaches is Crawford's Early. This is an early, sure, and great bearer, of the most beautiful, large fruit;—a good-flavored, juicy peach, though not the very richest. It is, on the whole, the very best peach in all parts of the country. Time, from July 15th to September 1st. Freestone.

2. Crawford's Late is very large and handsome; uniformly productive, though not nearly so good a bearer as Crawford's Early. Ripens last of September and in October. Fair quality, and always handsome; freestone; excellent for market.

3. Columbia.—Origin, New Jersey. It is a thoroughly-tested variety, raised and described by Mr. Cox, who wrote one of the earliest and best American fruit-books. Fine specimens were exhibited in 1856, grown in Covington, Ky. Excellent in all parts of the United States. Freestone.

4. George the Fourth.—A large, delicious, freestone peach, an American seedling from Mr. Gill, Broad street, New York. The National Pomological Society have decided the tree to be so healthy and productive as to adapt it to all localities in this country. It has twenty-five synonyms.

5. Early York.—Freestone; the best, and first really good, early peach. Time July at Cincinnati, and August at Cleveland. Time of ripening of all varieties varies with latitude, location, and season.

6. Grass Mignonne.—A foreign variety, a great favorite in France, in the time of Louis XIV. Very rich freestone, flourishing in all climates from Boston south. The high repute in which it has long been held is seen in its thirty synonyms. One of the best, when you can obtain the genuine. Time, August.

7. Honest John.—A large, beautiful, delicious, freestone variety. Highly prized as a late peach, maturing from the middle to the last of October. Indispensable in even a small selection.

8. Malacatune.—A very popular American freestone peach, derived from a Spanish, and is the parent of the Crawford peaches, both early and late.

9. Morris White.—Everywhere well known; a good bearer; best for preserving at the North; a good dessert peach South.

10. Morris Red Rare-ripe.—A favorite, freestone, July peach. The tree is healthy and a great bearer.

11. Old Mixon.—Should be found in all gardens and orchards; it is of excellent quality and ripens at a time when few good peaches are to be had; it endures spring-frosts better than any other variety; profitable.

12. Old Mixon Cling.—One of the most delicious early clingstones. Deserves a place in all gardens.

13. Monstrous Cling.—Not the best quality, but profitable for market on account of its great size.

14. Heath Cling.—Very good South and West. Wrapped in paper and laid in a cool room, it will keep longer than any other variety. Tree hardy and often produces when others fail. Excellent for preserving, and when quite ripe, is superior as a dessert fruit.

15. Blood Cling.—A well-known peach, excellent for pickling and preserving. It sometimes measures twelve inches in circumference. The old French Blood Cling is smaller. Many of these varieties will be found under other names. You will have to depend upon your nursery-man to give you the best he has, and be careful to bud from any choice variety you may happen to taste. Difficulties and disappointments will always attend efforts to get desired varieties.