i, A Bee 
57 
and congenial soil, for the peach is very hard to please in this respect. It demands, for 
best results, a well drained sand loam or gravelly soil. I have tried orchards on sand, clay 
loam, sandy loam, both high and low, but my best orchard is on an elevated piece of 
ground of about five acres in extent. On other parts the trees have been short-lived and 
unsatisfactory, especially on the clay loam. 
I am in favor of rather close planting of the peach trees on account of their liability 
to die of yellows at an early age. If our trees lived, now as they did in the days of our 
fathers, when it was not uncommon to meet with orchards twenty-five or thirty years 
planted, then a distance of twenty feet would be needed; but as it is I am inclined to 
plant at about twelve feet apart. 
The method of pruning has much to do with deciding the distance of planting. If the 
limbs are allowed to grow to any length, spreading out like bare poles, with foliage 
and fruit far out towards the ends, certainly close planting would not answer. But this 
method of pruning is out of date in Oanada, even trees so treated die early, and are not so 
productive as when properly shortened in. Of late years | have become more and more 
convinced of the great importance of the shortening in system of pruning the peach tree, 
and every year practice it to a greater extent. The ideais simply to cut back the new 
growth about one-half every spring ; and in case of neglected orchards which have already 
be-ome straggling, to cut back the old wood severely ; and in this way an abundant supply 
of young wood is kept up which is productive of bi tter fruit and a greater abundance of 
it. An orchard so treated will also live longer and be more attractive in appearance. 
The peach orchard must have thorough cultivation, especially in the early part of the 
season. I usually plow twice in the early part of the season, and then cease cultivation, 
in order that the wood may mat~re well before the cold weather. 
The peach has its share of enemies and diseases, chief among which are the curl, the 
curculio, the borer and the yellows. For the curl I know of no remedy. It is not often 
severe, but sometimes with the diseased leaves the fruit also drops. I have little difficulty 
with the borer. I always heap up my trees with earth in the spring and when Mr. Egeria 
exitiosa, as the entomologists call him, attempts to get a place in the tender part at the 
collar of the tree he finds he is blocked out by the earth. The Yellows is st‘ll as great a 
mystery as ever, notwithstanding the enormous expense incurred by the Department of 
Agriculture of the U.S. in trying to understand it. I have looked carefully through the 
report on the subject faithfully and elaborately prepared by Prof. Erwin Smith, but can 
find no better method of eradicating this scourge than the one which you and I have been 
faithfully employing for years past, and that is, rooting out every case as soon as discovered. 
Prof. Burrill, of Champagne, Ill., the discoverer of the microbes which cause the 
pear to blight, called on me last year. He showed me through his powerful microscope 
the microbe accompanying the yellows, but he said that its mode of operation was still a 
mystery, and he could not yet say whether it was the cause of the disease or an accompani- 
ment of the unhealthy conditions. 
Packages and packing are important in the handling of a crop. The old bushel crate 
has entirely passed out of use with us in Canada. The half bushel and basket has given 
place to a twelve quart basket, and now the question is whether this is not too large. I 
intend to use, for choice samples during the growing season, the ten-pound grape basket, 
putting only the finest in this package and the ordinary in a larger package ; but I shall 
weary you, gentlemen, if [ go into details in matters concerning which you have as much 
experience as I have. 
I only hope that the difficulties in respect to hardy varieties of merit and of insect 
enemies and fungus diseases may be so far overcome that peach culture in this favored 
peninsula may take the place it should among our most profitable industries, 
