LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 113 



elements in the soil, and for this purpose I have applied to the roots of the 

 trees four pounds per tree of a fertilizer componnded from the following 

 formula : 4 per cent of sulphate of magnesia, 24 per cent of muriate of potash, 

 and 72 per cent of black bone dust or dissolved bone black. This dose I 

 design to repeat in the spring. On any trees that show yellows I will add 

 three or four pounds of muriate of potasli, this being the salt most deficient 

 in a diseased tree. In the absence of this the tree becomes diseased by reason 

 of its taking from the soil too large a percentage of lime to supply its natural 

 ■wants, the same as an individual becomes diseased by means of taking into 

 the stomach such food as is not calculated to sustain life and keep the system 

 in a healthy condition. In other words, a starved tree will take from the soil 

 anything in the reach of its roots, to sustain life for a time, the same as a 

 starving man will eat dog if he can get nothing better. 



There are many other things in connection with peach culture that might 

 be spoken of, j^rominent among which is proper thinning of the fruit, as early 

 in the season as you can be warranted in doing it. Of course the early varieties 

 require least thinning, because the curculios destroy much more of these than 

 of later varieties. As a general rule, peaches should not be allowed to grow 

 more than four or five inches from each other, to give best results. Of course, 

 the earlier this is done the larger and better will be the fruit. There are 

 some varieties that require cultivation the same as corn, or they will not grow 

 and mature, but it will not do to cultivate much after the first of August, 

 because you will induce too late growth of wood, and thereby the tree will be 

 too tender to stand the severities of winter. 



Allowing the fertilizer above spoken of to cost twenty cents per tree per 

 anuum, and the cost of cultivation twenty cents more, you have an expense 

 per tree per annum of forty cents. Then, allowing that you get a 

 bushel per tree only once in two years, you still have a margin in favor 

 of the peaches of twenty cents per tree once in two years, or 

 twelve to fifteen dollars per acre per annum over and above cost. 

 This is on the assumption that an orchard may be grown to three years old 

 without cost, or, in other words, the cost of growing an orchard to three years 

 old is compensated for in the crops grown with the orchard. Again, if a 

 remedy can not be discovered for yellows, the certainty of your orchard being 

 destroyed in from three to five years after it gets to bearing will not warrant 

 any one in setting an orchard. Any person having a high plat of ground, of 

 sandy or gravelly loam, where the mercury seldom goes more than 10 degrees 

 below zero, may grow an orchard to three years of age with very little expense, 

 assuming that the land is good enough to warrant you in planting corn with 

 the trees. At this time, or the fourth season after planting your orchard, you 

 may reasonably expect to get a bushel per tree, which will net you a half 

 dollar per bushel; and if you plant 130 trees per acre, or about 18 feet apart, 

 you have about 165 per acre. Then, allowing that you put back $15 of this 

 in the form of a fertilizer to supply exhaustion and to prepare the tree for the 

 next crop, you still have $50 per acre for the use of your land. This you may 

 reasonably expect to continue at least ten years, assuming that you can control 

 yellows. If you plant an orchard on level, or a lower piece of land, of equally 

 good qualities in all other respects, where the mercury is liable to go down to 

 20 degrees below zero, you will be likely to lose it from severity of the winters 

 before it is seven years old, with the strong probability of not getting more 

 than one crop of peaches in the whole time. With these things staring you in 

 15 



