Recent Studies on Peach Yellows and Little Peach 27 



Rate of Growth as Affecting Time of Maturity 



Normal, slow growing peach trees may ripen their fruit from a 

 few days to 19 days earlier than rapidly growing trees of the same 

 variety in the same locality. During the season of 1914 at Vineland, 

 Elberta began to ripen its crop August 19 on a plot receiving no nitro- 

 gen, while it did not begin to ripen on a plot receiving 10 tons of 



'ree With One Branch Girdled by a Label Wire. 

 Note Rolling of the Leaves 



stable manure per acre until August 27, a difference of 8 days. Some 



well fertilized young Elberta trees in the same orchard did not begin 



to ripen their fruit until September 7, a difference of 19 days between 



the older, slow growing trees and the younger rapidly growing ones. 



Slow growth, therefore, is correlated with early maturity. Slow 



growth, also means the early storage of reserve food in the twigs, 



branches and roots. We may also express it in this way: that slow 



but vigorous growth and early storage of reserve food promote large 



size and early maturity of the fruit. 



