1884.] PEACH EXPERIENCES, 27 



then I think we can shorten back. It is the returning sap, 

 not the crude sap, but the returning sap, that comes from the 

 leaf, which we are cutting off; so that I think, just as far as 

 we cut off the growing branches, while they are maturing the 

 sap for the next year, just so far we are injuring the tree. It 

 seems so to me. 



Mr. Dayton. I see that Mr. Hoyt is in the room. I will 

 ask him if they practice cutting back at that time ? 



Mr. Hoyt. A gentleman near Ayer, Mass., one of the 

 best and most successful growers of the peach, recommends 

 cutting back in the fall, so that the wood will harden up and 

 make the buds stronger and more vigorous. His experience 

 has been that trees cut back at that time endure the winter 

 better in that northern region. He has written a work which 

 it is worth while for any one to read. He is a man who has 

 had a great deal of experience, and has studied the subject 

 of peach culture as much, probably, as any man in New Eng- 

 land. Mr. Augur is well acquainted with him. 



Mr. Augur. I would say, in answer to that, that we cut 

 back three rows of trees in our orchard in September, at the 

 time Mr. Fletcher recommends, and we found that a good 

 many of them started a second growth, and some of the wood 

 died two or three inches back of where it was cut. It did not 

 injure the tree very greatly, but we were not pleased with the 

 result. 



Mr. Croffut. Respecting this cutting back, I will give a 

 little experience I have had with other fruit, the chestnut, for 

 instance, which may help solve this case. I had a chestnut 

 tree which bore very small chestnuts, I left it until the 

 next spring, and then I cut off a good-sized branch, and I 

 never saw nicer, larger chestnuts in my life than that tree 

 bore that fall. If a tree is allowed to mature in the proper 

 manner during the fall, and then in the spring some of those 

 buds are taken off, you will find it, according to ray experi- 

 ence, just the thing. 



Mr. J. H. Hale. We have some 6,000 peach trees growing 

 for the fruit, and we have had to study this question of culture 



