166 



CULTURE OF THE PEACH TREE. 



CULTURE OFTHB PEACH TREE. 



BY A PENNSYLVANIAN. 



Mr. Downing — As I deem the results of 

 experiments in horticulture of more gene- 

 ral interest than the promulgation of theo- 

 ries, I venture to send you some brief notes 

 of my experience in the cultivation of the 

 Peach tree. 



In your most valuable standard work on 

 Fruits, you have, I think, proved very plain- 

 ly that the disease of the Peach tree, called 

 the Yellows, is caused by bad cultivation in 

 a light or poor soil. I am very well con- 

 vinced that other maladies to which this 

 fruit tree, is subject are the result of the 

 same causes. It is the common and popu- 

 lar belief, that the Peach tree should al- 

 ways be planted in a light sandy soil ; nay, 

 that a thin sandy loam is the best for it. I 

 suppose this opinion has arisen from the cir- 

 cumstance of the low price at which many 

 tracts of land in New-Jersey, Delaware, 

 and Maryland, can be turned into peach 

 orchards, and that too profitably. 



But it is well known, that there peach 

 orchards are short-lived. From three to 

 five years is their average duration, and 

 most planters do not expect to get more 

 than one or two crops of fruit from their 

 trees. They then give them up as diseased 

 or worn out, and plant new orchards. 



It is well known, also, that such is not 

 the natural duration of the Peach tree ; that 

 in the deep soil of the Ohio the trees bear 

 and grow well from ten to twenty years ; 

 and the natural existence of the Peach tree 

 in our climate, is at least a dozen years of 

 fruitfulness. 



What I gathered some years ago from 

 this reasoning is, that we make a mistake 

 in this part of the Union, when we plant 

 orchards with the expectation of raising 



the fiyiest fruit, or healthy long-lived trees 

 on light thin soil. 



It is my own belief, based on some little 

 observation and practice, that no soil will 

 grow the best peaches, i. e. the largest and 

 finest flavored — except it is good wheat 

 land. 



I have some land in this county of the 

 character usually selected for Peach or- 

 chards, and I have grown a limited orchard 

 for many years past, Avith the usual success, 

 viz., tolerable fruit and short-lived trees. 

 About eight years ago, after visiting a 

 neighbor in the upper part of New-Jersey, 

 where the soil is good strong wheat land, I 

 determined to change my plan of raising 

 them altogether. I considered that we mis- 

 took the nature of this fruit tree ; that it 

 really requires more generous culture. 



Choosing a tolerably good field on my 

 farm, I set about preparing it for an orchard. 

 This was in October. It was on a fair san- 

 dy loam, rather light, on a subsoil of gra- 

 velly loam. 



My idea was to deepen and enrich the soil 

 of this field before planting the trees. It 

 is not, I believe, considered well to subsoil 

 where the underlayer is gravel. But I 

 made the experiment nevertheless, as it was, 

 I thought, my only chance for decided suc- 

 cess. 



The trees in this orchard were to be 

 planted sixteen feet apart. As labor and 

 manure were both of consequence to me, 

 1 determined to make my first experiment 

 by subsoiling only half the area to be set 

 out with trees. 



This I did by plowing and thoroughly 

 subsoiling straight strips across the whole 

 field, eight feet wide. The subsoil plough 



