By
noon the air was wonderfully soft and balmy, and Webb brought in a number
of sprays from peach-trees cut in different parts of the place, and
redeemed his promise to Amy, showing her the fruit germs, either green,
or rather of a delicate gold-color, or else blackened by frost. She was
astonished to find how perfect the embryo blossom appeared under the
microscope. It needed no glass, however, to reveal the blackened heart of
the bud, and Webb, having cut through a goodly number, remarked: "It
would now appear as if nature had performed a very important labor for
us, for I find about eight out of nine buds killed. It will save us
thinning the fruit next summer, for if one-ninth of the buds mature into
peaches they will not only bring more money, but will measure more by the
bushel."
"How can one peach measure more than eight peaches?"
"By being larger than the eight. If all these buds grew into peaches, and
were left on these slender boughs, the tree might be killed outright by
overbearing, and would assuredly be much injured and disfigured by broken
limbs and exhaustion, while the fruit itself would be so small and poor
as to be unsalable. Thousands of trees annually perish from this cause,
and millions of peaches are either not picked, or, if marketed, may bring
the grower into debt for freight and other expenses. A profitable crop of
peaches can only be grown by careful hand-thinning when they are as large
as marbles, unless the frost does the work for us by killing the greater
part of the buds.
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