GENERAL MANAGEMENT 79 



ducing the damage by wind storms, but this method 

 is now largely given up especially by the planters 

 of large orchards. It is perfectly feasible to estab- 

 lish a good wiftdbreak for the protection of small 

 family orchards, but it is manifestly impracticable 

 in the case of plantations which cover hundreds or 

 even thousands of acres. There seems to be no way 

 of preventing or mitigating the damage done by 

 ice storms. The orchardist simply has to take them 

 along with his regular year's medicine. 



ORCHARD ROTATION 



It may be well to mention here in connection with 

 the general management of a peach orchard the 

 fact that some sort of rotation of trees has to be 

 practiced. There is a feeling among the old-timers 

 who used to plant apple trees for their grand- 

 children that an orchard is a permanent investment 

 — that a plantation of trees once set out will last 

 forever. This is not the case with any sort of or- 

 chard and least of all with a peach orchard. As we 

 have elsewhere pointed out, the peach is a compara- 

 tively shortlived tree and cannot be expected to 

 thrive and bear profitable crops more than 12, 15 

 or 20 years. The man who goes into the business, 

 therefore, with the intention of staying and making 

 it a permanent success should bear this in mind and be 

 prepared to dig up old orchards when they become 

 unprofitable and eventually to replace them with 

 young and more profitable plantations. Such a rota- 

 tion has, in fact, been already worked out and put in- 

 to more or less definite practice by many of the best 

 peach growers. Professor Bailey in the "Cyclopedia 

 of Agriculture" makes some interesting suggestions 

 which are worth quoting. He says : 



