FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. Ill 



the peach with the cooked sulphur and lime spray. We made it 15 

 of sulphur, 15 of lime, to the 100 gallons of water. You know how that 

 is made. That is one of the most effective fungicides for the control of 

 the peach that we have. It is safe, it is reliable, it prevents the scab 

 from the peach and also prevents rot and we have not had any 

 trouble in burning the leaves where it was properly made and put on. 

 We also make two sprayings, one when the shuck drops and then three 

 or four weeks after. One month before the marketing begins we use 

 another spray and by this method we are quite successful in keeping the 

 rot from getting much foot-hold on our peaches. Three sprayings is 

 all that we use on our peaches. In the second spraying we put in 

 arsenate of lead to control the curculio, but in the last spraying we 

 not use it. 



In regard to thinning and cultivation — we do so by plowing our 

 orchard with a gang plow, three or four inches deep then follow with 

 a spring-tooth harrow with a stirrer, and we level our orchards and 

 then after that we use a 90-tooth three-section harrow. We have been 

 successful in keeping the orchard in goon condition for we go over 

 it with a gang plow and spring-tooth harrow and level it down. The 

 moisture is absorbed and the trees are kept in very healthy, growing 

 condition. I advocate a very thorough thinning, taking all poor fruit 

 and leaving only as much fruit as the tree will profitably support. 



We market herein half-bushel and bushel baskets. Our fruit is all 

 packed in the orchard. We don't take to the packing house. We have 

 men right in the orchard who do the sorting of the fruit so you see it 

 is really handled but once. And by thorough pruning and spraying, 

 and thinning we eliminate all the culls. 



A Member — Are you troubled with rabbits girdling the trees, and 

 if so what do you do? 



Mr. Braman — We have never been troubled with rabbits at all, but 

 last season for the first time to any extent, we had difficulty with the 

 short-tailed mice. We lost perhaps 60 or 75 trees from one to three 

 or four years old. Not having had any experience with them before 

 1 did not know just what to do. I think, however, we will mound 

 the young trees high up and then if they are gnawed there will be 

 body enough below to start another tree. There are various precau- 

 tions that are had but I am not familiar with them. A neighbor of 

 mine had some experience with rabbits. They began gnawing the trees 

 and we took linseed oil and ground-graphic and applied it in the form 

 of a paint to the bodies of the trees and it seemed to have the effect 

 of keeping the rabbits aAvay. 



A Member — When does your Gold Mine ripen as to your Elberta? 



Mr. Braman — It follows right on the heels of the Elberta. We begin 

 picking it just as soon as we finish picking the Elberta. 



A Member — At what age do you try to have your peach trees bear? 



Mr. Braman — Just as quickly as possible. 



