80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



branches, some of them as large as your finger, perhaps, 

 because the tree will get to growing pretty strong ; and the 

 result is, that you have a tree with the branches growing 

 almost at right angles. You can load that tree down to the 

 ground, as Mr. Russell has seen on my place, without any 

 prop, without breaking. It is very difficult to break a 

 branch on a tree that comes out at right angles, or nearly 

 at right angles. Then you have a tree that does not run up 

 into the air : it is handy to pick from. The same thing 

 would apply to apples, if you were going to thin apples, as 

 Mr. Slade recommends. Trim the tree so as to keep it from 

 growing too high: it can be done very easily, if you train 

 it the first four or five years ; if you let it go three or four 

 years, it is pretty hard work to bring it down where you 

 want it. 



Peach-trees do not last so long as they used to, owing to 

 this disease that I have spoken of. You want to cut these 

 strong branches back every year ; and, when they get out of 

 your reach, take one of those little pruning-knives, and fit 

 it on a pole like a rake-handle, and cut the strong branches, 

 which do not bear fruit to any great extent, leaving the 

 small branches to bear your fruit, and you will have on 

 those trees all the peaches that the trees can stand under, as 

 I did this year. 



In order to show what I mean by thinning peaches, I will 

 say that I told my man to thin the peaches ; and, as he did 

 not thin them half enough, I told him to thin them again; 

 and then we had a storm that blew off a good many of them ; 

 and then they were thinned again, and that got them about 

 right. If the biids are not winter-killed, there is no danger 

 that a peach-tree will not set fruit enough. Now, whether 

 the buds are winter-killed, or not, depends a great deal more 

 upon whether the wood is ripe in the fall. If you have a 

 very dry fall, the wood ripens, as it did last year ; and, 

 although the winter was one of the most severe we ever 

 had, the peach-trees went through all right. Manuring with 

 animal manure, and making a great growth on the tree, 

 prevents the wood from maturing in the fall; whereas, if 

 the tree makes a more moderate growth, and a growth that 

 will bear the fruit better, with bone, or with ashes, or 

 bone and potash, I think the wood ripens better. There is 



