STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 185 



llEPORT ON PEACHES, PLUMS AND CHERRIES. 



BY B. PULLEN. 



We confess to some embarrassment in endeavoring to comply 

 >vith the promise made to your honorable Secretary, that we would 

 try to furnish a paper or report on the peach, j)lum and cherry, to 

 be presented at this meeting. In a brief pa])er the whole subject 

 €annot be traversed; to what feature of it shall we call your atten- 

 tion? The subject assigned me is peculiar in this, that each of the 

 fruits named have a history that is quite similar. Each has been 

 prominent in the early history of fruit-growing in our State for 

 commercial purposes, but to-day are largely neglected. This is very 

 notably true of the peach. 



Varieties, locations, preparation of grounds, planting, after 

 treatment, pruning, and the care and handling of products are all 

 important. These, however, have been so thoroughly and ably 

 treated and discussed from time to time by those qualified to do so, 

 that it would seem no one need want for information who will con- 

 sult the records of this Society. 



The decline of peach growing, and to a less extent that of 

 plums and cherries, to those who have had large interests, and we 

 might say successes also in the past, is a matter of grave concern. 

 It will not do to ascribe it all to the increased severity of our wint- 

 ers, climatic changes, insects, etc., as some are disposed to do. We 

 can well remember that oyer twenty years ago the thermometer went 

 down into the twenties, destroying or ruining many peach branches. 

 My own were saved by the removal of one-half of the tops. This 

 has occurred at intervals of four or five years since. The treatment, 

 however, in my own case not being always the same. If it was ab- 

 served that the injury was greater in the tops than trunks, the tops 

 were removed; if the trunks had suffered most, the to])s were left 

 remaining, and it was noticed that persons who failed to observe 

 this had their orchards ruined either by removing or not removing 

 the tops, as the case might be. We will vouch for results as above 

 stated, but must leave to our scientific friends the assignment of 

 reasons. 



These early orchards thus treated lived in most cases to a good 

 old age, and produced crops of as fine fruit as was ever shipped to 

 any market. Those of later planting of like experiences failed to 

 do this, that is to produce good fruit, and many of them were finally 

 removed on account of their worthlessness, until now it is difficult 

 to find a ])eacli orchard, where once they could be counted by the 

 hundred. We have a theory about the failure of the peach, inde- 

 pendent of insects, etc., and it is our present purpose to notice it. I 

 have had more difficulty in contending with the rot than with in- 



