Seeds, sown where the plants are to stand. The plants are hardy and seeds may be sown very early. =Peach= (_Prunus Persica_) _Rosaceæ._ The peach is perhaps the easiest to propagate of all northern fruit trees. Stocks are universally grown from seeds, although root-cuttings will grow. The seeds should be buried out-doors in the fall, and shallow enough so that they will be fully exposed to frost. Some prefer to simply spread them upon the surface of the ground and cover them lightly with straw to prevent them from drying out. The pits should be kept moist, and by spring most of them will be cracked. Those which do not open should be cracked by hand, for if planted they will not germinate until a year later than the others. The "meats" or kernels are sorted out and planted early in drills. Or some prefer to sprout the seeds in the house, in order to select the best for planting. Some growers upon a small scale pinch off the tip of the rootlet to make the root branch. Pits should be secured, of course, from strong and healthy trees, but the opinion that "natural seed," or that from unbudded trees, is necessarily best, is unfounded. The seeds should be planted in rich soil, and the stocks will be large enough to bud the same year. Any which are not large enough to bud may be cut back to the ground the next spring, and one shoot be allowed to grow for budding, but such small stocks are usually destroyed, as it does not pay to bestow the extra labor and use of land upon them. When the buds have grown one season, the trees are ready for sale--at one year from the bud and two years from the seed. Peach trees are always shield-budded, and the operation is fully described on pages 68 to 75. Grafting can be done, but as budding is so easily performed, there is no occasion for it. The peach shoots are so pithy that, in making cions, it is well to leave a portion of the old wood upon the lower end--extending part way up the cut--to give the cion strength. Peaches are nearly always worked upon peaches in this country. Plums are occasionally employed for damp and strong soils. Myrobolan is sometimes used, but it cannot be recommended. All plums dwarf the peach more or less. The hard-shell almond is a good stock for very light and dry soils. The Peen-to and similar peaches are worked upon common peach stocks. The nectarine is propagated in exactly the same manner as the peach. The ornamental peaches are budded upon common peach-stocks in the same manner as the fruit-bearing sorts. For _Prunus Simoni_, see Plum. =Pea-nut= (_Arachis hypogæa_). _Leguminosæ._ As a field crop, the seeds should be planted where the plants are to stand. For propagation in greenhouses, see Arachis. =Pear=, =Alligator= or =Avocado.= See Persea.