268 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a real nice crop next year, simply because it could only mature what it 

 had and could not lay a foundation for the next year. For the first year 

 I do not know how deep you should cultivate; for the second year 1 

 would not cultivate very close to the tree. For the third and fourth years, 

 and from then on, I never cultivate an orchard deeply. Sometimes I 

 see men plowing f oiir, five or six inches deep, and it looks to me as if they 

 were going to ruin that year's crop, and they usually do. We see men 

 plowing in the spring so deep down that they are turning up roots as 

 large as your finger sometimes, and it certainly must result in injury. 

 For that reason I say always work shallow after the first one or two 

 years at the outside. 



I spoke yesterday of thorough fitting of the land so that it would be 

 fitted in good shape down to a good depth, and that would be simply a 

 part of the plan. I had an idea, and I felt that I was very safe in it, that 

 very early plowing started the growth a little too soon, the conditions 

 being such that you got a rapid growth and curl leaf was caused. That 

 theory is a little bit shaky with me now, so I am beginning to give the 

 idea up and think that I do not know very much about it. I have heard 

 it suggested that the conditions were not good for curl leaf the 20th of 

 last May, that the growth had been moderate previous to that, but while 

 they had it in the southern belt, in the northern part the conditions were 

 ideal. The foliage was very young and tender, but still there was no 

 curl. Our scientific men tell us it is a disease contagious and can be con- 

 trolled by Bordeaux mixture, and it begins to look as if that was right. 

 Early cultivation may have just this one bad effect, it may break up the 

 capillary action and make it more liable to frosts. If you want to com- 

 mence I should wait until the frosty spell is over and then commence 

 and hurry my work along. A little attention to a few things like that 

 will often save you a few hundred dollars. 



PRUNING. 



When a tree has been set, my practice has been to keep rubbed off the 

 superfluous shoots for the first season. Rub off the unnecessary ones 

 in the top and the top formation will be distributed twelve or fourteen 

 inches along the top so that there will be no crotches formed. Have 

 an ideal in your mind, remembering that a few limbs do not show very 

 much on a tree now, but as they get older they show considerably, and 

 leave not more than you need, although on the peach you can cut out 

 much better than on the apple. After one year's growth I trim back the 

 strong growth to balance them up with the weaker ones. You usually find 

 the weaker growth on the west side. Cutting back the stronger growth 

 wherever it appears is my practice for the first year. After that I cut 

 back one-half to two-thirds of the annual growth. Always commentie 

 the cutting from the top and then work down the limb; never commence 

 at the bottom and work up. There have been never half a dozen crops in 

 my orchard of eight years old, that has borne crops that have had to be 

 thinned. 



There are two trying periods in the life of the bearing peach tree — one 

 "when it is forming pits, and one the period of blooming. The production 



