148 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



should be taken to place the peaches on the trays with the cut surface 

 squarely up so the cups formed by the pits will retain the syrup which 

 fills them in the sulfur bath, otherwise this will flow out upon the trays, 

 causing' the fruit to adhere to them when dry and the dried product 

 will be lighter in weight. On emerging from the sulfur house the trays 

 should be immediately spread upon the drying ground, and in ordinary 

 weather exposed to the sun for about three days, when they are stacked 

 or piled one upon the other to a convenient height and the balance of 

 the curing process is completed in the shade. Generally they will be 

 ready for the sweat box in about two days, but no hard-and-fast rule 

 can be laid down for this, and it is only in the school of experience that 

 the proper time for boxing can be learned. A good general rule is 

 when the curing process has so far advanced that the skin can not be 

 slipped from the fruit by rubbing between the thumb and fingers. 

 I always aim to box a little before they are in this condition as the 

 smaller and drier ones will readily absorb the excessive moisture from 

 the larger fruit, and if packed firmly in the sweat boxes or in bins for 

 ten or twelve days the whole mass will be evenly cured and in excellent 

 condition for the packing-house. 



An orchard is usually cleaned in three or four pickings and as little 

 fruit as possible should be knocked or shaken from the trees. Houses 

 for sulfuring must be made tight with only sufficient ventilation to 

 insure the burning of the sulfur. These can be very cheaply and easily 

 made by building a frame of 2 by 4 scantling and covering with one-ply 

 roofing paper. I have iLsed houses of this sort four years before renew- 

 ing the covering. The most satisfactory method, however, is to cover the 

 frame with cheap boards and then line outside with roofing paper. 

 This makes a strong, tight, serviceable and inexpensive house that will 

 last for many years. 



The transfer fruit cars now so common in the peach growing sections 

 and steel track are indispensable to quick and satisfactory service where 

 more than a very limited quantity of fruit is to be handled. Each sulfur 

 house shoilld be of such size that either one or two loads of the fruit car 

 will exactly fill it. 



In the packing-house the fruit is graded into five different sizes or 

 grades by passing it over a series of screens of different sizes in the 

 grader. These grades are termed standard, choice, extra-choice, fancy, 

 and extra-fancy. The smaller sizes are nearly all packed in fifty pound 

 boxes and the better grades in twenty-five pound cases though some one 

 pound cartons are now being put upon the market. The bulk of the 

 crop is consumed in the United States. 



Like most commercial fruits, the peach is subject to some diseases 

 and is preyed upon by a variety of insects. Through the alertness of 

 our horticultural officers this great industry has so far been preserved, 

 in this State, from those insidious diseases known as yellows, rosette 

 and little peach, with which so many of the growers in the east and 

 middle west are only too familiar. One of the most common diseases 

 of the peach in this State is blight, but as this is a fungus easily con- 

 trolled by spraying with Bordeaux mixture in the late fall or early 

 winter it is not to be dreaded, though this spraying should never under 

 any circumstances be omitted. 



