292 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



results that depend wholly upon seedling trees. Some varieties will pro- 

 duce themselves, or very nearly. Hill's Chili is one of those. There are 

 other varieties which we would be absolutely uncertain as to what we 

 would get. The Smocli is another variety that will reproduce itself. 



Member: I have been reading something in regard to thinning, and 

 I wish to ask your opinion in regard to it, particularly in regard to one 

 party who thins pretty largely with the shears. He waits until the buds 

 come out in the spring, so he can judge from that about how many peaches 

 the tree would bear, and he, instead of commencing below and doing the 

 cow-tail ti'imming that has been spoken of, commences above and works 

 down out of the tree, and thins out and leaves what he thinks the tree 

 may be able to support; he cuts out the fruit in that way, instead of allow- 

 ing them to grow as large as your finger. He aims to trim the tree in 

 the spring before they commence this process. Everyone knows the effect 

 of trimming the grape vine, how the grape vine will send out new wood 

 on which to bear the fruit, but we have not got to the idea that the peach 

 will do the same thing. In this way, in cutting it out at that time, the 

 tree is ready to send out a new growth of wood for the next year, so he 

 had an abundance of new wood in time to produce new peaches, and keeps 

 on in that way; it produces better peaches. So his idea is that he will 

 do his thinning with the shears, largely. Mr. Stephens, of Kalamazoo, 

 says: "How long we live before we know anything." I only learned last 

 year to thin my plums with the shears, cart-ying out the same idea with 

 the plums that Mr. Morrill does with the peach. 



Mr. Henry (Laporte, Ind.): Would he take into consideration that he 

 is in northern Indiana and not in Michigan; that he is in a section of 

 the country where the greatest difficulty is to get the peaches on the tree, 

 not to get them off? That is our trouble. If he will explain to us how 

 to raise peaches in northern Indiana, how to get them on the trees, I will 

 see about getting them thinned enough. Our difficulty here is to get a 

 crop of peaches once in five years. I would like to know something 

 about that. 



Member: I can't answer that. 



Professor Fulton: You do not have the influence of the lake that we 

 have in the locality of the lake shore country where I come from. That 

 is what makes our peach trees bear. If we did not have the influence 

 of the lake, we would not get crops any oftener than you say you are 

 able to get them Jiere; I doubt if we Avould get peaches at all, in any 

 quantities, at least. On the east side of the State we are able to grow 

 some peaches, but they are not as reliable as they are on the other side 

 of the State. In sections where the conditions are not favorable, where 

 there is danger of freezing the buds, or freezing the trees, some advance 



