PEACH. Persica vulgaris. The original country of the peach is not certainly known. It is, however, indigenous to Persia, and was taken from thence to Italy by the Romans, in the time of the Emperor Claudius. Hence its name Persica, from Persia. In China it seems to have been cultivated from time immemorial, and their traditions in relation to the peach are not essentially dissimilar to our biblical account of the tree of knowledge; as generally understood.
The peach began to be generally cultivated in England about the middle of the sixteenth cen tury, and was brought from hence to America about 1680. In England, peaches can not be raised without the protection of a wall, the trees being trained along the south side. Even in France their cultivation is not entirely success ful without the aid of protection, except in the southern portions. China and the United 'tates are the only temperate climates where the peach / arrives at full perfection. In Michigan, the northern line of cultivation is Grand Traverse bay, near the foot of lake Michigan. West of lake Michigan they can not he grown north of central Illinois and southern Iowa. Yet if it were not for winter killing, the summers would ripen them up to the latitude of St. Paul, Minn. There are none of our fruit trees so easily prop agated as the peach. If the stones are placed in a thick layer in a shallow trench, in the autumn, and covered with eight inches of earth, and then planted in April, they will he ready for budding in September. This should be done quite near the ground. The following spring the top should be cut back near the bud. The growth will often reach six feet the first season, and the third year they will bear. In the North they are sometimes budded on the plum, since this stock is hardier than the peach, and the trees are dwarfed thereby. Budded upon the Mirabelle plum stock they become quite dwarf, and thus are suitable for orchard houses. The soil best adapted to the peach is a rich, deep, dry, sandy loam; but they grow well on a strong, mellow loam, or even in light sand. In fact, any dry, good soil, except a heavy clay, does well for the, peach. On very light soils the trees are quite subject to the yellows. (See Yellows in Peach.) So severe has this disease become within the last few years in Michigan, that most stringent laws have been passed for its eradication. In some
otherwise good peach growing districts, the blossoms are killed by late spring frosts. Where this is the case, the trees should be planted on northern slopes, or on high, airy situations, or along the banks of deep streams, lakes, or bluffs. The most noted peach region in the West is the Michigan lake shore region, in Michigan; next, the bluffs about Alton, Ill., and then the whole timbered region south of Centralia. South of the Ohio river, and in Missouri and Kansas, and south, the peach is everywhere at home. The peach orchard should have good cultivation early in the seasou, and the pruning should consist simply in shortening in the branches, to keep the head as dense as possible. The peach is so easily grown that it seems strange that Western farmers should not plant them more for home use. They will, with care, bear two or three years in five, up to the northern limits of Illinois, and when the trees are winter killed they may be easily renewed. We have seen finer peaches nowhere than used to be grown on the sandy soils in pro tected situations near Chicago. Above we give the list of varieties supposed to be adapted to various sections of the United States, as lately revised by the American Pomological Society, in which will be found varieties adapted to any climate where the peach will flourish.
The columns explain : Size—I , large ; m., medium; s., small. Class—F., freestone ; C., Clingstone. Color—relative to the flesh, w , white or pale colored; y., yellow or yellowish; g., greenish white, red at stone. Quality—j. v., juicy, vinous; m. j. r., melting, juicy, rich; s. j.. sweet and juicy; s. j. h., sweet, juicy and high flavored. Glands—s., serrated, without glands; g., glands globose; r.,glands reniform, Season —the season of maturity, as Early, medium or Late, those designated as Early, ripen in lat. 43' ,previous to or about Sept. 1; Medium; those ripening from 1st to 15th Sept., and Late those after that period; a few of the Very Early and Very Late are so designated—E., early; M, me dium; L., late; V. E., very early; V. L., very late. Origin—Am. American ; F., Foreign.
signifies doing well ; * *, great superiority and value; f, new and recently introduced for trial.