THE KANSAS PKACH. 25 



to have one or two other desirable peaches which may be marketed 

 both before and after them. In this way he will not run the risk of 

 sending his entire crop to a glutted market. 



XIII — PREMATURE BLOOMING. 



Probably the chief factor operating to cause the total loss of our 

 peach crops in the seasons when they make a total failure is the affec- 

 tion of the fruit by late frosts. Consequently it is always desirable 

 to have the trees to bloom as late in the season as possible. Many 

 methods have been sought by which this end could be attained. 

 "Smudging" as a preventive process is well known, and has been 

 attended with great success, but probably the most effective means 

 has been found to be whitewashing . It is well known that the two 

 colors which absorb heat most readily are black and purple, and that 

 white has been found to be the best reflector. Owing to the fact that 

 the bearing twigs of the peach are nearly always of a dark purple 

 color, it has been found that they very readily absorb the heat rays 

 of the sun in the late winter or early spring, and that such absorption 

 causes the fruit-buds to swell prematurely, thereby exposing them to 

 great danger in case of late frost. If, however, the purple color was 

 replaced by a white surface, the sun's rays would necessarily be more 

 or less reflected, and careful experiments with the thermometer made 

 at the Missouri station during the past few years have proved that a 

 considerable variation in temperature is observable between white- 

 washed and unwhitewashed jDeach twigs. This subject has been 

 thoroughly investigated at the Missouri station, and it has been found 

 that a coat of whitewash applied to the trees in early winter by means 

 of a spray pump, and renewed as often as washing rains or other re- 

 moving agencies render it necessary, has proved absolutely effective 

 in retarding the development of the fruit-buds, while untreated trees 

 bloomed from a week to ten days sooner, and were, in several in- 

 stances, injured by late frosts through which the whitewashed trees 

 passed unharmed. Consequently this method of treatment can be 

 quite confidently recommended. 



XIV — THE STRINGFELLOW THEORY OF ROOT PRUNING. 



Mr. H. M. Stringfellow, of Galveston, Tex., has of late years ad- 

 vanced a theory which promises to overthrow all accepted methods of 

 tree planting, and will, doubtless, should it be proved practical, pro- 

 duce a complete horticultural revolution in this particular. He holds 

 that, instead of endeavoring to retain and maintain intact the original 

 root system of a transplanted tree, it should be severely pruned — cut 

 back, in fact, to practically no roots at all, or at most mere stubs of 

 roots, thereby reducing the tree to the state or condition of a cutting — 

 the top being shortened proportionately to maintain a relative bal- 



