INDIANA HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 377 



selves for agi'iculture and horticulture, if they will put the same amount 

 of brains and energy and capital into it that young men do into other busi- 

 ness, will soon stand head and shoulders above the others. I have two 

 boys who were born and reared on a fruit farm. One of them is out of 

 Cornell and is working on a fruit farm, a rough, stony farm, and he is 

 spending $200 an acre to clean it up. The other one has still another 

 year at Cornell, and he will come back and do the same thing, right on 

 the old home farm. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Johnson: I should like to hear somi^thing about your method of 

 pruning peach trees. 



Mr. Hale: Formerly I followed the method they do in California, of 

 shortening one-half or two-thirds of the previous year's growth of the 

 stronger shoots. Now, I cut out entirely in midsummer the strong centi'al 

 growth. I let the tree make its vigorous growth, and the most vigorous 

 shoots will be in the central head going towards the sky, and along about 

 the twentieth of June in Georgia and first to tenth of August in Connecti- 

 cut, I cut that growth out entirely. There may be six or eight or ten 

 shoots in the main body growing skyward. We go in there and cut them 

 out entirely, and then the sti-ength goes into the side branches. We prune 

 for cutting out the crossing branches in winter. 



Mr. C. A. Rowland: How do you keep the side branches from strag- 

 gling? The Keilifer will straggle if you do that. 



Mr. Hale: My way with the Keiffer would be to cut it six inches 

 below the ground and burn it. I believe in growing good fruit. 



Question: How much do you cut the apples in the summer season: 

 that is, the main shoots? 



Mr. Hale: After the tree gets to bearing I cut the strongest new 

 shoots out entirely each year. I want a low tree; I want it where I can 

 work at it in spraying, fruit thinning and harvesting. 



Mr. W. W. Stevens: We have in our State a good deal of fruit land 

 that is rolling. How would you recommend us to manage that land? 



Mr. Hale: We have pretty hilly land in Connecticut, and I never saw 

 any so rough I could not till it. Why, some of it is up edgewise! 

 It is seven acres to the square acre there in some places! 



Mr. Stevens: What do you think of the mulching methods? 



