no THE AMERICAN PEACH ORCHARD 



high misunderstood the question. The writer tends 

 strongly toward the minimum heights here men- 

 tioned. His recommendation would always be to 

 head young peach trees at a height of 6 to 12 inches 

 from the ground. 



The advantages of low heading are many, and are 

 more serious in the case of peach than of any other 

 fruit tree. The peach tree forms poor, weak, brit- 

 tle crotches which are particularly liable to split 

 down when weighted with a load of fruit. When the 

 head is formed at the surface of the ground or very 

 near it the crotches are stronger than when the head 

 is high. All sorts of damage by overloading of fruit 

 or ice is greatly reduced. 



FORMING THE HEAD 



After the tree has been started on its very short 

 trunk, the fruiting head has next to be formed. 

 Different growers have different ideals as to what 

 form these heads should take, though it must be said 

 that a good many men's ideals are extremely vague 

 on this point. Many of the correspondents already 

 referred to gave their opinions also as to the forma- 

 tion of peach tree heads. Fourteen spoke definitely 

 in favor of the vase form, which is the most widely 

 known and definitely recognized form for growing 

 peach trees in orchard plantations. Other growers 

 spoke of growing trees in pyramidal form or cone 

 form; and it may be suspected that they had in mind 

 the cone or the pyramid inverted, as there is really 

 no such thing as a pyramidal peach tree in bearing. 

 Among these curiosities of nomenclatures were also 

 nine recommendations for the "umbrella-shaped" 

 tree. These men probably had a vague idea of the 

 vase-formed peach tree. Adding together the num- 



