364 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tained has been exhausted. Then yellow leaves appear and stunted 

 growth, just at a time when extra food is required in* anticipation of 

 the calls crops of fruit will make. 



A great deal of the difficulty experienced in keeping peach trees 

 healthy comes from starved trees. Peach trees may be planted either 

 in the spring or fall. One year old from the bud is the proper kind to 

 get. If the trees are pretty well branched, as they sometimes are even 

 when so young, it is best to prune them in pretty close. For orchard 

 purposes, high-branched trees are not desirable. It is better, there- 

 fore, to aim for low-branched ones, and these can be had by heading 

 the trees back when planting them, leaving them when set to be about 

 five feet high. Branches will push out for a foot or so below the top, 

 leaving the tree branched from about four feet up. It is easier to 

 gather fruit from such a low branched tree, and less fruit is blown off 

 in gales, besides that the ground is mose shaded from the sun and is 

 cooler than under the other system. 



As the trees grow year by year they should get a little pruning 

 annually. It is too much the fashion to let the branches form and grow 

 as they will, resulting in trees with long branches, the fruiting twigs on 

 the extremities, and the inside limbs bare of twigs of any kind. This 

 need not be. If a little pruning be given every year there will result 

 model trees, with twigs from top to bottom of the branches, which will 

 bear fruit. What is required is to keep up a little shortening in every 

 year. This can be done when the tree is growing as well or better than 

 at any other. The end nipped off from a growing shoot will result in 

 the formation of perhaps three or four where the one was. 



When shortened in winter the number of new shoots is not increased 

 perceptibly, hence the desirability of summer pruning. Trees pruned 

 in this way never require any heavy cutting of branches, consequently 

 there are no scar§ to be painted, and as the trees grow they seem to 

 increase in beauty. They become of good outline, are clothed with 

 blossoms from bottom to top in spring, and afterwards are laden with 

 fruit in the same way, very different to the average peach tree generally 

 s«en. — Practical Farmer. 



CLASSIFICATION OF VARIETIES OF PEACHES. 



That there are well-defined types of peaches which behave differ 

 ently in different latitudes is well-known, and some knowledge of the 

 classification of varieties as affected by climate is necessary, not only to 

 the practical grower, but to the scientist as well. The peach has been 



