STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 61 



season, probably not after the first or middle of July, as a late fall growth i6 not desir- 

 able. A6 far as my observation has extended, the best cultivated orchards have been 

 most certain to produce crops. The more vigorous the trees, the better able they seem 

 to be to withstand the extreme cold of winter and the frosts of Spring. There is no 

 objection to growing corn or potatoes, or any other hoed crop in the orchard lor the 

 first two or three year^ after planting; This generally secures the cultivation of the 

 ground which is needed and does not seem to retard t ho growth of the trees; but after 

 this period it is better to allow the trees to occupy all the ground. 



PRUNING. 



The usual and approved practice in planting an orchard (the trees being one year old 

 from the bud,) is to cut off all side branches and to shorten the main stock according 

 to its size — if it has made a large growth it may be left from three to four feet high. 

 Considerable attention will be necessary during the first season, to secure the proper 

 number of branches, removing all but three or four main brauches. The lateral 

 branches to form the head of the tree, should be started at least three feet from the 

 ground, and perhaps, even four feet would be better. The theory of low-headed peach 

 trees advocated by so many Horticulturists, has mis-led some of us to our lasting 

 injury. Among the more obvious advantages of high-headed trees, are the greater con- 

 venience of cultivating the ground (and as a peach orchard must be cultivated as Ion" 

 as it stands, this is an advantage of great importance), a freer circulation of air in the or- 

 chard ; and, If mentioned last, not the least, the greater convenience of lighting the inev- 

 itable Curculio. 



After the first year, very little pruning is required for two or three years, or until the 

 trees come into bearing, except perhaps, a slight shortening of overgrown branches. 

 The novice should be cautioned against cutting back too severely during the first year 

 of growth. Some large orchards in my neighborhood, failed to produce a crop the 

 fourth year after planting, in consequence of being shortened in the year before, accord- 

 ing to the theory of most of the books on this subject, while other orchards of the same 

 age not pruned at all, produced large and profitable crops — and I have seen no evidence 

 that the trees which were kept in an unfruitful condition by this system of pruning, 

 have made any better trees than others. These facts, seeming to demonstrate the error 

 of that method of pruning at that particular stage of growth, has perhaps led many of 

 OS into the opposite extreme, equally hurtful to the permanent health of our orchards, 

 that of not pruning at all after the trees actually need it. Peach trees left to themselves 

 until they come into bearing, the third or fourth, year after planting, usually have well- 

 shaped, rounded heads, with plenty of bearing branches and healthy leaves. After this, 

 if the tree is left to itself, the principal growth will be produced at the ends of the prin- 

 cipal branches and the young shoots in the interior will die out. A few years arc sufli- 

 " cient to produce very ill-shaped and unsightly trees with long, naked branches, bearing 

 fruit only at the ends, and finally breaking under the weight of the fruit. The problem 

 is to keep the tree in proper Bhape and to produce a constant growth of young bearing 

 branches in the interior of the head of the tree. For this purpose I know of no other 

 method than the system advocated by Downing, viz. : the annual " cutting off of half 

 the last year's growth over the whole outside of the head of the tree, and also upon the 

 inner branches." This practice is not to be commenced until after the trees have come 

 into bearing. This point seems to have been overlooked by many who have copied the 



