98 Peach-Growing 



PERIOD OF PROFITABLE PRODUCTIVITY 



Aside from the influence of good management on the period 

 of productivity, there are apparently regional influences 

 that are more or less potent. Under favorable conditions, 

 an orchard may produce considerable fruit in almost any 

 region in its third year, but on the other hand the fourth 

 season after plantmg is as early as most growers expect a 

 crop of commercial importance. If the trees fruit earlier, 

 the grower is merely that much ahead. But in the duration 

 of the trees there is a rather wide range. As above noted, 

 good care counts for much, since depletion from the lack of 

 tillage, neglect of pruning, impoverished soil, and the en- 

 croachment of insects and disease tend to shorten materially 

 the productive life of peach trees. In general, even under 

 good care, an orchard that has been planted twenty years 

 is regarded as old. Few orchards in fact attain that age before 

 many of the trees are badly broken to pieces or otherwise 

 rendered of no account, and in some sections they are rarely 

 regarded as profitable after they reach the age of twelve to 

 fifteen years, the age being reckoned always from the time 

 the trees are planted. The stimulation of new wood growth 

 by tillage, fertilizing, and proper pruning, however, may add 

 a considerable number of years to what would otherwise 

 be the end of the profitable duration of an orchard. 



Under the latter conditions and in some regions, an orchard 

 occasionally reaches the age of twenty-five years in a fairly 

 profitable state. An extreme case of this sort occurred some 

 years ago in one of the older peach-growing regions of the 

 country where an orchard which was then more than twenty- 

 five years old was not only in fairly good condition, but it 

 was the third peach orchard which had occupied the same 



