190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



years Avhile waiting' for 'trees to attain the bearing age l).v the growing 

 of intermediate crops upon the land. After t]iis tlie expense increases 

 and we can do nothing but to keep eternally vigilant in pruning, culti- 

 vating and the destroying of boi-ers, and in some years, spraying for 

 the prevention of curl leaf, and wait patiently upon each severe cold 

 spell of winter to see whether it has left enough live buds to make a 

 paying crop. Nature is so bountiful in supplying the peach tree with 

 fruit buds that some of our best paying crops have when we had left alive 

 but one bud out of fifteen or twenty. 



Now, I can not refrain from calling attention of the prospective 

 planter to this fact, that although this occnri-ed several times in Indiana, 

 the reason for the financial success of these crops was that these same 

 years there was not one live bud in a thousand left in less favorable 

 localities, embracing almost the entire State as well as near surrounding 

 territory. There is also to be taken into account, besides favorable 

 locality, the convenience of, and most profitable markets. The peach 

 should not be picked until ripe, and is so perishable after this that it 

 is most important to have close-by mai'kets. Certain localities can not 

 use but the hardiest varieties, and these, are not always the best quality 

 or most suitable for shipping. 



As to favoral)le localities, I Avould give preference to Ohio River bluffs, 

 through Switzerland, JelTerson and Clark, next, the hills and knobs of 

 Floyd, part of tiarrison, Washington, Scott and Brown counties. That 

 there are other portions of the State in the most broken and rolling parts 

 where peaches might pay, no one can doubt. Yet there are enough faA'or- 

 able sites on the southern tier of counties to grow all the peaches that 

 the surrounding available markets and the entire State would consume 

 at anything like remunerative prices. A great deal of this land is by 

 no means the most valuable for farm crops, so there is not so great 

 an investment in beginning, and if crops are more fi-equent there are 

 two important items in the planter's favor. On the most favOrable of 

 these localities our crop years would average possibly two out of three 

 or four out of seven, and this is really as much as the grower should 

 desire, for this reason: The rest and recuperation of the trees, during 

 the years of failure, if properly distributed, is as beneficial to the owner 

 as continual crops. There is also during these off years a very essential 

 lessening of the ravages of the curculio. 



I will say to the one who thinks of planting peaches, that there is 

 scarcely a locality in Indiana where the farmer Avill regret 

 the planting, of a few trees on the l)est protected and most elevated 

 places, for he will, at several times during the life of the tree, have 

 such a supply of this most luscious of fruits as to make the good Avife 

 feel that she is not only rich, but well-to-do, but I can not conscienciously 

 say to the farmers of Indiana over the larger portions of the State to 

 plant large commercial peach orchards with the expectation of obtaining 



