168 Peach-Growing 



like the bacterial shot hole leaf disease was common. On 

 the plots fertilized with nitrogen there was little bacterial 

 disease. On adjacent unfertilized plots the injury from this 

 cause was very great. The trees in the plots fertilized with 

 nitrogen also recovered from winter injury much more suc- 

 cessfully and quickly than unfertilized trees in the same 

 locality. 



"The application of phosphorus and potassium either 

 singly or in combination did not result in increased yields. 

 The results of the investigations on fertilizers for peaches 

 seem to indicate clearly that a nitrogenous fertilizer or a 

 method of cultivation and management which favors a 

 vigorous tree growth when combined with pruning, spraying, 

 and thinning fruit on overloaded trees will increase the crop. 

 The above treatment tends to make them carry their fruit 

 buds through winter and frosts of spring much more safely 

 than where an average or weak growth only is secured. 

 Our results seem to disprove the theory that trees must 

 make their main growth early in the season and then be 

 checked or retarded in their growth in August or September 

 in order to ripen their wood before going into winter. In 

 some experiments at this Station where the trees have been 

 encouraged to grow vigorously right up until some of the 

 green leaves froze on the trees, either by the use of fertilizer 

 or by severely pruning back the winter before or by thin- 

 ning the fruit, have uniformly carried their fruit buds through 

 the winter much more safely than with trees that shed their 

 leaves and ripened their wood early." 



It should be noted that in Missouri and in some other 

 peach regions the winters are naturally mild compared 

 with the more northern latitudes. In northern latitudes 

 the winter temperatures are fairly constant as a rule and low 



