88 TEANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



REPORT or AWARDING COMMITTEE ON SPECIAL PREMIUMS. 



Best Display of Apples Grown in Missouri^ Arkansas^ KentucJii/, 

 or Tennessee — First premium, W. M. Samuels & Co. Clinton, Ken- 

 tucky ; second premium, E. F. Babcock, Little Rock, Arkansas. 



Best Display of New Apples (competition open to the world) — 

 First premium, E. F. Babcock, Little Rock, Arkansas ; second 

 premium, W, M. Samuels, Clinton, Kentucky. 



Best Display of Apples Grown in Southern Illinois — First 

 premium, W, R. Grain, Villa Ridge. 



C. N. Dennis, 

 Arthue Bryant, 

 Frank. Cadwell, 



Committee. 



PRUNING PEACH TREES. 

 BY E. A. RIEHL, ALTON. 



Training and Pruning the Peach — Before entering upon the 

 subject of pruning, I wish to say something about the training of the 

 peach tree, — a subject of very great importance and one almost 

 entirely overlooked. Whether the heads should be high or low every 

 one must determine for himself. I prefer a moderately high head, 

 and like to start the first limbs at a height of about four and a half 

 to five feet from the ground. I want the heads high enough to be 

 able to run a Hull curculio catcher. I want not over four limbs to 

 start from the main stem, and they should be started at different 

 heights, and trained so as to branch ofE from the stem nearly square. 

 The reason for this is, that the peach vrood does not unite in a fork 

 like other trees, and this is one great cause of peach trees breaking- 

 down when loaded with fruit. 



To get the limbs to branch off at an obtuse angle, it is necessary 

 to train them when quite young. This I do by pruning where pos- 

 sible, by bending the limb down, and putting a stick, weed, or corn 

 stalk between the limb and stem above, so as to hold the limb in the 

 desired position for a month or more during the growing season, or 

 by tying the limb down to the body with a string tied to the limb, 

 from one to several feel from the stem, according to circumstances, 

 and to a four-penny nail driven into the tree near the base. The 

 reason for starting the limbs at different heights is, that if started 

 together they form acute angles between, and not uniting, cause a 

 dead and weak spot in the tree. The main limbs are allowed to 

 branch, some at a distance from the stem, but never so much as to 

 •cause the small twigs in the centre of the tree to be killed out by 

 the shade. 



