106 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I hope that some suggestions have been offered that will be of help to 

 those who are interested. 



Now in regard to peaches. I think I have made a greater success of 

 my peaches than of anything else and it is because I have tried to deal 

 with them in the same intelligent way that I have with other things 

 I have raised. 



First, I want to say that we have no scale neither have we the yellows 

 and we have never had any, and more we hope we never will. 



As to varieties, we have practically all of the standard varieties, you 

 have, but I am partial to the Elbertas because it is the product of the 

 Elberta orchards that the public wants. 



I planted my trees from eighteen to twenty feet apart, and the result 

 we had to climb up to the moon in order to harvest them. We spray the 

 peaches for the curl leaf in the spring and we handle the peaches much 

 the same as we do cherries. We , fertilize a little later. I just said that 

 I planted my peaches first eighteen or twenty feet apart, but now I 

 put them at least 25 feet apart and they would be better 30 feet apart. 

 I do this so that the}^ can take up food from the soil. It is better to 

 let nature furnish it than to buy it from the commercial factories. It 

 is cheaper and better. You can never grow good fruit without plenty 

 of sunshine. You cannot spray the peach as you do the apple. If 

 you do there is liability to be a ruination of your trees. Keep your 

 peaches from among your apples. M}^ observation and our experience 

 teach us that it is better for both fruits. In caring for our orchard, 

 which is located on a rolling tract of land, it often happens that on 

 the little knolls the wind blowing over them will remove the dirt from 

 around the roots of the trees and the trees will be liable to freeze out 

 during the winter. To guard against this, we haul in a good deal of 

 stable manure, and ]>lace around the trees for two or three feet and 

 they are thus protected. 



The trees of this particular orchard are very low down and nearly all 

 • of the fruit can be picked from the ground. We cut them back every 

 spring and do most of our thinning with the pruning shears. In fer- 

 tilizing Ave use 1,000 pounds of 4-8-5 goods; i. e. 4% nitrogen, 8% 

 phosphoric acid and 5% potash. We really do not need the nitrogen as 

 we have too much nitrogen in that soil already. 



In packing, we tried the Colorado- methods of putting our peaches 

 in 20 pound boxes and wrajiping them but Ave found that it did not pay 

 and Ave have quit using that method. We noAV pack our peaches in 

 carriers Avhich hold % of a bushel and Ave got at an aA^erage of $2.00 

 per carrier this Acar, which means |3.00 a bushel for peaches in Chicago. 

 In Pittsburg, hoAvever, Ave fell doAvu for there they brought only |1.15 

 net, per carrier. 



We have CraAvfords, and this year we had a large crop, but we find 

 they do not meet the demand as aa'cII as some others. The Gold Mine 

 is an excellent peach. They are nearly as large as Elbertas and groAV 

 evenly and are aa'cII liked by the trade. The New Prolific of the Green- 

 ing Bros. & Co. is a good peach although it has a very tender skin and 

 grows all sizes and a still Avorse feature is that it is all the season in 

 ripening. I like a peach that ripens evenly. Tavo or three pickings is 

 enough to go over an orchard. 



I believe in plenty of fertilization for the peach orchard. I buy stable 

 manure all I can get and I use it especially in exposed places and on 



