186 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



it too far. Verv thorough cultivation early in the season up to August 

 is what should be given then. Give the tree a chance to reach a complete 

 dormancy. The reason why I mention this is because it seems to me that 

 the other side is the weak one as a rule. 



One of the great troubles in replanting has been the group of root 

 {>arasites Avhich have been attacking the old trees, living on the roots 

 and yet the trees have carried them and borne fruit in spite of them. 

 As far as I know that group comprises two or three things. In the first 

 place fungTis that gets on the peach and also on the apple. It rots the 

 tips of the root fibres and occurs on the seedling. It needs further in- 

 vestigation. Then again there is a little undescribed fungus which I 

 thought was the cause of "little peach" but I do not know about this 

 for sure. Then there is the black peach aphis ; indeed it is hard to keep 

 track of what is going on underground. I have seen enough of these 

 troubles to be quite sure that a large part of the difficulty of planting 

 young orchards on old peach land is not in the absence of humus but 

 the presence of parasites that attack these. There is one place where 

 an advantage comes in of having a three years' rest or change — by put- 

 ting on something on which they cannot live. Then by manuring and 

 fertilizing the young tree grows so fast that it will outgrow them. 



You can grow the tree nearly free from it by manuring the holes but 

 you can take a tree that is sick, nearly half dead, and recover it with a 

 bushel or two of stable manure. 



• DISCUSSION. 



Question. I would like to know if there are any trees on peach land 

 that are mose susceptible to the yellows than others. 



Prof. Waite: There may be some slight variations, but the}^ all get 

 it about the same. In one part of the country, the native seedlings 

 seem to be resistant, but doAvn in Virginia we found the peach trees from 

 seedlings that were about the. worst afl'ected of any we ever saw. 



Question : What do you say to planting a peach orchard on land that 

 has to be drained. 



Prof. Waite: I do not think it is advisable to i)lant peach trees on 

 land that requires draining. I know that some have done it and it is 

 perhaps a problem that you can solve better under your particular con- 

 ditions than anyone else. 



In this connection, and before going farther, I wish to say that of the 

 miscellaneous diseases one of the great problems noAV is to spray your 

 fruit trees and grow this fine fruit. It will not pay you to fertilize and 

 manure and give your trees perfect cultivation if you do not spraj'. 

 For, unless you do spray, it will be impossible for you to raise fancy 

 fruit and unless you can gTOW^ this kind of fruit vour orchards will not 

 pay you very much. Your trees should be sprayed during the summer 

 with self-boiled- lime sulphur. In the matter of fertilizers it is rather 

 hard for anyone to give a formula tlxit will fit any particular orchards. 



Question : You spoke of peaches being as large as apples. How large 

 were those apples? 



Prof. Waite: We picked peaches so large that 54 filled a crate. 



A voice: I had peaches that 42 of them filled a half bushel basket. 



They ran 66 to the crate and we had still larger peaches than that. 



