FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 77 



In looking for a site adapted to growing the peach what are some of 

 the points to have in mind when making the selection? Experience has 

 shown that an elevated spot is quite necessary. By an elevation is not 

 meant so much the height above sea level, though this may have some 

 bearing, as its elevation in relation to the immediately surrounding 

 country. It is surprising what a difference a few feet in height above 

 the land around it will make in temperature during a cold snap or when 

 a late spring or early fall frost is expected. The College peach orchard 

 is on land almost level with that around it. Some years we have a par- 

 tial crop of fruit but it is the exception when we do. Three miles from 

 the College is a portion of land quite limited in area which is perhaps a 

 hundred or more feet above the land around it. During a cold spell the 

 thermometer there is ten degrees higher than at the College, and when 

 strawberry blossoms in the spring or tomato plants in the fall in the 

 College garden are killed by frosts, plants of the same kind on that hill 

 are uninjured. Also on that high portion peaches have been grown for 

 thirty years, though in some seasons but a partial crop was gathered. If 

 this hill were a i»lateau several miles in extent, doubtless it would not 

 escape the sudden drops in temperature or the frosts that make fruit 

 crops uncertain on the lands adjoining. It is because of its small area 

 that this hill is valuable for peach growing. 



Peaches will stand from 10 to 20 degrees below zero, differing with 

 varieties and with the condition the trees enter the winter, without 

 serious injury. Five degrees lower temperature would be fatal to the 

 crop. Four out of five winters the hill orchard does not get this fall of 

 five degrees ; the College orchard does. Hence the .principal reason why 

 one locality is more favorable than the other for the peach. If the high 

 land is cut up with ravines, I think its adaptability to the peach would be 

 improved. A railroad cut fifty feet deep runs from southwest to north- 

 east right through the land above mentioned. The peach orchards are 

 on both sides and close to this cut. I believe another reason why these 

 orchards have been so successful is due to provision thus artificially 

 made for the cold air to pass through in this big ditch. 



SELECTING THE SITE. 



In the interior of the State the exposure may have something to do in 

 the selection of the site. Possibly a southern exposure may hasten the 

 growth in the spring and so bring out the blossoms to be injured by the 

 frosts. If an orchard has an eastern exposure and the sun comes out 

 early and bright after a late spring frost, the blossoms are more apt to 

 be injured than they would be if allowed to thaw out slowly; this a west- 

 ern or a northern exposure would enable them to do. I should be 

 inclined, other things being equal, to select a site having a northern or 

 northwestern exposure. How much there is in this question of exposure 

 I am unable to state. 



The soil of the peach belt is generally sandy, quite light in some por- 

 tions. From this fact has probably risen the prevalent notion that only 

 sandy lands are adapted to peach growing. Some of the most suc- 

 cessful interior orchards I know of are on clay, and heavy clay at that. 

 Soil of a clayey nature may even have some advantages over sand for 



