FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 269 



of pollen is a severe draft on the tree. To illustrate that, an apple orchard 

 often blooms until it is a solid bank, and bye and bye it all sheds off; it 

 exhausts itself from an overabundance of blossoms. With a little scat- 

 tering bloom you often get a nice crop of fruit. To prevent that in the 

 peach, we would trim off all this surplus wood before blooming. Now I 

 have advocated cutting back severely and thinning out the following year, 

 but my friend, Mr. Graham, of Grand Rapids, at several institutes this 

 winter, has cautioned the people that my practice might not be good for 

 them. He said, "It may do for Morrill, or for Steams, but it may not do 

 at all for you." Now that is true, because he bases his calculations on 

 this, that a large majority of the people are not quite thorough enough. 

 Now, unless the whole plan is carried out, I am not sure but that it had 

 not better be attempted. The practice just half performed might result 

 in damage. For that reason I shall take Mr. Graham's caution and 

 throw it out here myself. 



THINNING. 



The next important operation with a good crop of fruit is to thin it, 

 and as I said the other day, there is such a thing as doing the right thing 

 at the wrong time or the wrong thing at the right time; this pruning, if 

 put off to late, may be the right thing in the wrong time. If you wait 

 till the pit formation has commenced, there is another draft on your tree. 

 Many of you wait until the pit hardens and the thinning does not 

 increase the size of your fruit much. The framework of that peach has 

 been laid out, and it would not make so very much difference how many 

 peaches there are on that tree, but if taken off before this occurs, your 

 framework will be laid out larger, and the probability is that you will 

 take three or four times the dollars out of the crop because you have fine 

 fruit all through. 



I want now to refer again to Mr. Hale's commandments. His fifth 

 commandment is, "Give thorough culture from the opening of spring 

 until the new growth is well along." I take this view of it, that the first 

 year, on account of the late start, they do need a check. If they had 

 entire possession of the land the first year, and good culture, it would be 

 a question in my mind if they would mature properly. 



MANURING. 



Mr. Hale advises "liberal annual manuring broadcast, with commercial 

 fertilizers rich in potash and phosphoric acid, and lacking in nitrogen." 

 Now with me that is the very best possible practice; I have used ashes 

 that I was satisfied in my crop were worth |oO a ton. Prof. Bailey's esti- 

 mate was three or four times that. He came over from the world's fair 

 and particularly wanted to see a block I had of three hundred trees that 

 were loaded. They all set fruit, but within a week or two before the 

 time of ripening, I noticed that the three rows that had not had any pot- 

 ash were not filling out and getting that nice swell in them that you like 

 to see, and were not coming out so well as where the ashes were. 



