40 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



The peach is a tree that will recover itself and make a rapid 

 growth if well pruned back. If there is only life enough left for 

 the sap to start up the tree the new wood will form over the old 

 wood and they will look as healthy as new trees. 



But if you leave the whole of the top, the chances are that you 

 will never have a good tree, even if it should live at all, which I 

 very much question. On old trees take a good saAv and cut the 

 tops off about six, eight, or ten feet from the ground : never mind 

 if it does look as if it would ruin them, it is the only salvation for 

 them, A peach will recover if it has only a short distance to send 

 the sap through the diseased wood, whereas if it had to flow to 

 the tips of the trees it would flow so slow that it would soon be 

 checked by drying up. 



If the root is good a tree will recover wonderfully, but if the 

 root is much injured it had better be cut down. 



The more trees are injured the more they should be cut back, 

 is the sure rule to follow. If you would examine any old. peach 

 tree you would find only two or three years of good, sound wood 

 next to the bark ; this shows that often the trees have been com- 

 j^elled to form new wood over diseased wood, and if you can get a 

 vigorous start early in the spring, it matters not how much the tree 

 is injured, it is sure to recover. The time to do this cutting is 

 early in the sj^ring before the trees start their growth, and as soon 

 as freezing is over with. 



In fact I may say that the best peach growers in the West do 

 this pruning every two years at the farthest, and the trees always 

 show the close, compact growth, and not the loose, straggling 

 growth so generally seen. If you once adopt this plan you will 

 always follow it." 



This advice of the Missouri State Horticultural Society was 

 copied into nearly all the horticultural papers of the country, and 

 I have received many inquiries about it and commendations for it, 

 and some strong objections to it, one man even claiming that he 

 had tried it and nearly all the trees cut died, and those not cut 

 lived. All peach growers west know better than that, as it has 

 been tested in thousands of instances. 



