16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



more select, planted as follows: In a field planted to corn, every 

 fourth hill in every fourth row instead of corn was planted with 

 peach seed, leaving as they grew the best in each place. The 

 Snow peach, the Anderson Melocoton, the Hale's Melocoton, the 

 Yellow Spanish Melocoton, all came as true to seed as so many 

 beans, but the yellows struck the orchard and those seedlings 

 have all passed away, while a row of Mountain Rose transplanted 

 in the same orchard at the same time is still standing and has 

 borne this year very fine peaches. This experiment materially 

 dampened my ardor for seedling orchards. A wild Tennessee 

 seedling, budded with healthy Oldmixon buds, has the advantage 

 of an equal degree of health, great productiveness, and is so well 

 known in market as always to be salable at good prices. 



My seventh orchard was planted to blackberries. William Parry 

 and J. H. Hale visited my orchard, and Mr. Parry said it equaled 

 any peach orchard he had ever seen, in appearance. But with the 

 first crop the orchard failed utterly, and I learned that blackberries 

 and peaches are not compatible on the same ground. 



Our eighth and ninth orchards are now in their prime. They 

 missed a crop last year, on account of the peculiar extremes of 

 heat and cold in the winter of 1882-3; this year of 1883 has 

 yielded us about eleven hundred baskets of choice peaches, with 

 good promise for the future. Our ninth orchard of two hundred 

 trees has this year yielded a full crop of beautiful perfect peaches 

 without an exception of a single tree. 



Our observations and experience leads us to the following con- 

 clusions: 



That failures in peach growing are to a great extent preventable. 



That we should plant only trees of the best health. 



That we should adopt a sensible and uniform course of clean 

 culture, stopping at midsummer each year. 



That we should prune and shorten back so as to secure a renewal 

 of strong young wood each year. 



That we should fertilize so as to meet the fruit demands, and 

 prevent exhaustion, increasing the amount with the age of the 

 tree. 



^ That we should take no crops from the land after the trees com- 

 mence bearing, and allow no tree to over-bear. 



I desire to allude to the Yellows again, and ask what are we to 

 do about it ? It matters little to peach growers whether it b e 



