66 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



this value is due to the productiveness of the tree, the quality of the fruit, 

 and its adaptation to transportation. 



A desirable fruit from an unproductive tree is of little account, and yet 

 there are many thousands of such trees growing in our best peach lands. 

 Some valuable varieties may produce well in one locality and not in 

 another. Slight changes in the surroundings of a peach grove may have 

 marked results for or against profit. Only a few varieties have stood the 

 test of all localities, in all respects. Those most highly prized for size, 

 color, and quality are often most undesirable for producing fruit. Many 

 a peach-grower has waited long and is waiting still for fruit from the 

 trees he purchased at fancy prices by looking at highly colored pictures 

 that appealed to his eye with their beauty. 



For commercial purposes, a continual ripening of fruit, from the earliest 

 to the latest, is not to be ignored. The advantage of this process is not 

 only in a long season for sales but also on account of the climatic changes 

 which so often have a deleterious effect on perishable fruits. If the early 

 fruit is injured by too much wet or dry weather, the later may be greatly 

 benefited; or the conditions may be reversed, so that what is injurious to 

 one may add beauty and value to the other. 



PLANTING. 



The arrangement of plats and distance between trees is of some prac- 

 tical importance in facilitating orchard work. Sixteen, eighteen, and 

 twenty feet are the spaces commonly allowed for cultivation. Good results 

 may be secured from either distance; but the wider, or at least sixteen by 

 twenty feet, on a fertile soil, furnishes better colored fruit and greater 

 facility in all orchard work. 



Trimming the tree to a whip, at planting, and cutting back the yearly 

 growth in springtime, until the top is well formed, should by no means be 

 neglected. 



CULTIVATION. 



This implies a yearly preparation of the soil for yearly growth of tree. 

 It should begin in springtime when the grower wishes to aid nature in 

 putting forth foliage and fruit buds, not too early, lest an untimely frost 

 blast the grower's brightest hopes. It should be continued during the 

 growing season; in times of drouth as late as September, at other times 

 August first will be sufficient. If peach trees are allowed to ripen their 

 wood before September, in the latitude of Michigan, the fruit buds are 

 often developed by the warm days of autumn and become more susceptible 

 to injury by the cold of winter. 



In the Michigan peach-belt, corn may be grown among the newly 

 planted trees during the first and second summers. The shading of the 

 ground in this way is highly beneficial. 



FERTILIZING THE SOIL. 



Nature does not recuperate her exhausted powers rapidly. Human 

 agency must come in to help make up the deficiency. In some peach- 

 belts this is no easy task. Commercial fertilizers are always accessible at 

 at some price, but how well they will produce the desired result may still 



