The peach-tree, in common with all other fruit-trees, is a consort of two individuals--a named variety budded on an unnamed seedling. So far, the industry has been carried on with little or no regard to the effects the seedling may have on the variety to which it is budded, yet there can be no doubt but that the fruiting top is influenced by the stock upon which it is worked. The present nursery practice is to buy peach-pits, whatsoever they may be, at the lowest price, sow them in nursery rows and at the proper time bud to named varieties. Time was, in the East at least, when the pits came from the run-wild peaches of the southern states from which grew vigorous, healthy and fairly uniform seedlings but it is to be feared that most of the pits, the country over, now come from the canneries and from varieties so diverse in vigor, habit and season that the resulting seedlings are variable and must make variable the trees grown upon them. It is greatly to be regretted that the practice of growing peach stock from southern wild seed has been departed from though even a better practice might be to grow trees from some vigorous variety or, possibly, a different species, as _Prunus davidiana_, which is now largely used in China. _Prunus davidiana_ has, as we have stated in discussing the species, been tried very widely in the United States and seems to have many excellent qualities for a stock. The seedlings are vigorous, healthy, hardy, bud readily and the seeds keep well and sprout very uniformly so that usually there is a good stand. Perhaps the character that commends it most highly at present, however, is the hardiness of the species. It is proving hardy in colder regions than those where the peach is now a commercial crop, so that, wherever this fruit as now grown is at the mercy of the winter, _Prunus davidiana_ is a promising substitute for the hit-and-miss stocks now used. The drawbacks to the use of the Chinese species are that it does not bear fruits of any value whatsoever so that the crop would have to be grown for the pits alone and, because of very early blossoming, the trees bear only in most favored situations as regards spring frosts. Peach-on-peach is now the rule in eastern America but in Europe, and to a lesser extent on the Pacific slope, several other species are used. Thus, the hard-shelled Sweet Almond has long been used in Europe and is found to make a hardy, strong stock in dry soils in California. The Damson and St. Julian plums have been used with varying satisfaction in moist and heavy soils in America; and in Europe, these, with the Muscle and Pear plums, are common stocks for the peach. Peaches are dwarfed somewhat by all plum-stocks. The Myrobalan plum, very commonly used for nearly all cultivated plums, was at one time recommended for the peach but turned out to be very unsatisfactory and is now practically never used. The nectarine, Peento and Honey peaches are budded upon seedling peaches.