Winter Meeting. 303 



"& 



The}' made no new wood hardly at all, and that class of trees, a great 

 majority of them, died. The hmbs broke off — a great majority of 

 them did, but there are exceptions here. I know of one orchard that 

 was let grow in that shape. There was never anything done 

 with it. There had not been a plow in it for two years be- 

 fore, nor there has never been anything since. It had grown 

 np in weeds and briars and bushes, and I must say that the 

 largest and finest and the most highly colored peaches I saw in Greene 

 county came out of that orchard. But there is another side to it. That 

 orchard is now dead. I would not give twenty-five cents for it to produce 

 peaches another year. It has exhausted itself in maturing the crop of fruit 

 that was set this season. It will never produce anything more. If it was 

 n.iine, I would cut it down. 



Now, this has been a remarkable year in many respects along that line. 

 There are many such things have occurred, both in peaches and 

 in apples, and so we are left somewhat in doubt as to what 

 course is best to pursue in regard to cultivation. Now, there 

 have been peach orchaids that were thoroughly cultivated. I 

 know of one, a young orchard, about two miles from mine. 

 The trees were only four years old. It was planted in pop 

 corn, and cultivated just the same as if you were raising a crop of corn or 

 any other field crop. The trees made a fine growth, and they kept grow- 

 ing and growing, and the peaches kept growing, and they liked to have 

 never ripened. They didn't get ripe in time to go off in the cars for ship- 

 ment. That is one point against this continuous late cultivation. Now we 

 have the extremes. There was fine fruit in that orchard, even if it didn't 

 get ripe in time, and we have those old orchards that did get ripe in time 

 and had fine fruit, but now the trees are gone. This other orchard is in 

 fine condition for another crop. 



Now on this subject of cultivation. I believe that there is danger of 

 running to the other extreme. You talk too much about your intense 

 ■cultivation. Mr. President, I beheve in cultivation, but I believe there is a 

 limit to it. I do not believe a peach orchard should be cultivated to any 

 extent after the first of June. You want to give your peaches time to 

 ripen, and if you keep cultivating, you keep up a growth of Vv^ood, and 

 your peaches are long in getting ripe, and you never'get the color to them. 

 I do not believe it is necessary in a peach orchard to keep up the cultivation 

 so late. I think there are some mistakes being made along that line. 



I suppose the peach crop in South Missouri the present year is the 

 largest that was ever grown. Now, of course, some of the old orchards 

 may have had just as many on them before, but then the average is so 

 much larger, that I will state that it was the largest crop that was ever 



