Peaches in Western New York. 363 



so productive upon heavy lands unless they are severely headed in . 

 Upon such lands the trees run strongly to wood and they often 

 split down from the weight of foliage alone, when disturbed by 

 wind. The shaley or gravelly slopes about the central New York 

 lakes are generally well adapted to the peach ; and there is a line 

 of morainic hills in western New York which could probably be 

 planted to peaches with eminent success. In interior localities — 

 away from the lakes — it is generally only upon elevated land that 

 peaches thrive. These are lands which are naturally well drained 

 and they escape the late spring frosts which are frequently so dis- 

 astrous to peach buds in lower places. It is sometimes said that 

 in these interior places trees should not be set upon southern ex- 

 posures, for in such places the buds are likely to start too early in 

 spring. This is no doubt good advice ; but it should be under- 

 stood that it may not apply to lands within the influence of 'bodies 

 of water of considerable size. The areas about the interior lakes 

 which are safe for peaches are usually only a mile or two wide 

 and sometimes they appear to be confined to the farms which lie 

 directly on the shore. The once famous peach district of the 

 eastern shore of Cayuga I^ake was confined within a strip three 

 or four miles wide. 



Cultivation and fertilizing of the peach orchard. — Having se- 

 lected his land, the peach grower must look with the greatest care 

 to the cultivation and fertilizing of his orchard. Peach orchards 

 should never be cropped after the third year ; and if they are 

 planted upon sandy lands, which are best adapted to them, and 

 particularly if set less than 20 feet apart, they should never be 

 cropped from the time they are set. The tillage described in Bul- 

 letin 72 is the only reasonable treatment for the land in a peach 

 orchard, — very frequent stirring of the surface soil from May until 

 August, and thereafter, perhaps, a green crop, which shall be 

 plowed under the next spring. Never, under any circumstances, 

 seed down a peach orchard ! Never sow it to grain ! Lack of 

 tillage is ruinous, and I am astonished that farmers do not see this 

 fact when bewailing the unprofitableness of their sod-bound, 

 drouth-sick and borer-cursed orchards ! If there is any fruit 

 which should never be neglected^ it is the peach ; and this is why 

 careless men do not succeed with it, and why so many of the 



