STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 163 



At Puna, I visited the orchard of Mr. Chase on the 20th of July. His orchard had a fair 

 crop of fruit, somewhat marked by the Curculio. The Hale's Early was coloring and 

 rotting, as elsewhere. The orchards In the vicinity of Pana, I believe, had generally a 



tolerable crop of peaches, and did not Buffer as much from the Curculio, and rot as those 

 farther south. 



At Alton, the curculio and rot were very damaging to the small crops of fruit that 

 were left by the frost. One grower, S. B. Johnson, who had a very good crop, kept 

 flres burning in and about his orchard during the frosty nights. In my own orchard, 

 most of '.he early varieties foiled on younger trees; Hale's Early, entirely on young trees, 

 had few n aches and those all rotted. Troth's Early on trees six years planted were 

 nearly all destroyed by frost ; whilst a variety very similar, purchased as Cole's Early, 

 ami ten years planted, had a fair crop. Large Early York, on trees six years planted , 

 was almost a total failure, whilst on trees planted ten years, it bore well, — the only 

 apparent difference being the age of the trees. This held true with Crawford's Early, 

 and other varieties. Yellow Rareripe failed on six year old trees, that bore little fruit 

 last year. Late Admirable, on trees ten years planted, bore line and fair fruit. Magnum 

 Bonum proved very prolific, on six year trees, last year and this, but is not best in qual- 

 ity or very tine in appearance. Stump the World, on trees of six years that did not bear 

 las! year, had a good crop of fruit, less injured by frost and insects than almost any other 

 variety. The Heath, and other late varieties, ripening in wet weather, rotted badly. 



I have received some trees of new varieties this fall, that are said to promise well. 

 One of these is from Thomas J. Pullen, of Hightstown, X. J., called the Salway, and 

 described as "a late yellow freestone, very hardy, remarkably productive and highly 

 colored. It ripens from ten days to two weeks later than the Smock, and is a great 

 acquisition to our late market varieties." Such is Mr. Pullen's claim, not yet proven by 

 actual trial in the West. Another variety, I received from P. J. Berckmans, of Augusta, 

 Georgia, who there finds it the best market peach to succeed the Smock. This is Pic- 

 quet's Late, described as "very large, yellow with a red cheek, flesh yellow, buttery, 

 rich, sweet, and of the highest flavor ; maturity from end of August to middle of Sep- 

 tember," [at Augusta.] Flatus St. John, a yellow peach, ripening with the Early Tillot- 

 son, is another promising sort, also from Mr. Berckmans. 



At Centralia, we found that not only the peaches had been nearly all destroyed by 

 the late frosts, but the trees, owing to the large and exhaustive crop of 1807 and the 

 backward, wet spring of 1868, were looking badly at the time of our visit, (May 28th.) 



At Du Quoin, we examined the large orchard of the Winter Brothers, noted for its 

 successive good crops. The orchard contains about 50 acres, and was planted eleven 

 years ago, the trees being set 18x20 feet, and some 13x20. The trce6 were started with 



low heads, which results in three or four trunked trees more difficult t anagein 



pinning and cultivation. The Messrs. Winters state they would hereafter make the 

 trunks not less than 18 to 24 inches high. The last four or five years, the earth has 

 been mounded up about the trees to the height of about 18 inches. This is thought to 

 keep the trees dryer and to keep out the borer. Cultivation is begun when there is a 

 Crop Of fruit, late in May or curly in June. The ground is ploughed twice and then 

 kept clean by running a large cultivator made for the purpose, which cleans out a 

 space of 20 feet by running through it three times. In years when there is no crop the 

 ground is less cultivated, as one main object in cultivation is to increase the size of 

 the fruit and maintain the vigor of the tree at the time when its vigor is most 



