No. 1. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 611 



have been growing vetch for fifteen years. It has a tendency to 

 creep on the ground so thoroughly that it keeps out the frost, and 

 if you can keep it growing in tlie Spring, it will be of great service. 



It has been said that manure is a poison to the peach, but I 

 think that after the orchard is established and has borne one or 

 two full crops, we can very jyrofitably use more stable manure on it 

 than most of us have been doing. This also depends somewhat on 

 the variety. The Elberta will stand more manure than any other 

 variety. As one of our growers puts it, "the Elberta is a hog for 

 manure." In the spring of 1909 I gave quite a liberal supply of 

 manure to an orchard that had borne two or three crops, putting 

 (sn about fifteen tons to the acre. We had sprayed that orchard 

 the year before for the scab, and it denuded the trees, and to rem- 

 edy it, I gave them this application. The result was that the growth 

 for 1909 Avas very satisfactory, and last year we picked over 600 

 bushels per acre from that orchard, all running very high in quality. 

 So I believe that in connection with the phosphoric acid, we can 

 use larger quantities of the stable manure to supply nitrogen. We 

 use the South Carolina dissolved rock, and apply it at the rate of 

 forty pounds to a ton of stable manure and spread it at the same 

 time. I believe that we get better results by balancing it up this 

 way. 



The matter of spraying has been developed largely in the last few 

 years. A few years ago we sprayed only for the Scale, but we find 

 that by using the lime and sulphur, it takes care of the leaf curl. For 

 a long time the rot and spot and scab were very prevalent ; then we 

 began to use Bordeaux, using is very weak ; we began by using 

 about a pound and a half of the copper sulphate to three or four 

 pounds of lime and fifty gallons of water. But we found at hurt 

 the foliage, and then we learned of the self-boiled lime-sulphur, 

 and we find by its use that we can control all these pests. For 

 the curculio, we spray two or three times with arsenate of lead. The 

 Yellow St. John seem more susceptible to this pest than any other 

 variety. 



I want next, to speak for just a moment about thinning. Until 

 recently, growers seemed to think that thinning was all right in 

 theory, but not in practice. I went up to the meeting of the Eoches- 

 ter fruit growers a few years ago, and found some of them rather 

 inclined to sneer at it, but it is something you cannot afi'ord to over- 

 look. It is a good deal more jjrofitable to sell peaches at |2.50 a 

 bushel than at |1.50, and while the consumer may be inclined to 

 grumble a little at first, a week or two later he will remember only 

 the quality. Give them the best and give them a square deal, and 

 they will come back again. I believe that a good many of us are 

 a little inclined to be short-sighted in that respect. We seem to 

 think that if we only get the consumer's dollar it ends there. But 

 it does not end there; we want that consumer to come back to us 

 again, and the surest way we can get him to do this is to give him 

 good value for his money and not overcharge him. 



We begin to thin immediately after the June drop because those 

 peaches remaining on the trees take up the moisture and fertility 

 required hj the peaches we are going to market. Now, in thinning 

 there is no hard and fast rule to follow any more than there is in 



