90 THE KANSAS PEACH. 



GROWING PEACHES IN KANSAS. 



On the pages following will be found experiences, conclusions and 

 advice from quite a number of the older peach growers in Kansas. 

 The state is divided into four fruit districts, corresponding to the 

 four quarters, and the reports, or interviews, are classified according 

 to those districts. They are, all of them, worthy of careful study and 

 consideration. Through the experience of others we may learn much. 



THE FIRST DISTRICT. 



AY. H. Tucker, Effingham, Atchison county, has lived in Kansas thirty- 

 nine years, and now has an orchard of 125 bearing peach trees and 200 seedUngs 

 not yet bearing. His trees have been planted from six to fifteen years, in a black, 

 sandy soil, which he is not sure is best; he would prefer the red clay soil near 

 Missouri river. Does not regard any particular slope as essential. His budded 

 varieties are Amsden, Heath Cling, Early and Late Crawfords, Crosby, and El- 

 berta, and he would recommend this list to others. He would plant one- or two- 

 year-old trees, 15 x 30 feet, cut back to two feet, using all the roots they may have. 

 Has heaced in bearing trees, and says they did better than the others. His 

 Amsden are often ripe for July i. Says the extreme cold of February, 1899, in- 

 jured the tree growth and killed all the fruit-buds. Some years his peaches cook 

 on one side in hot sun. Curculio troubles his peaches some: has not tried spray- 

 ing. 'His peach trees are between apple trees. He grows no crop among them; 

 allows swine to pasture among them. Picks carefully in baskets and sends to 

 market in same — generally half bushels. He retails them, obtaining sixty cents 

 to one dollar per bushel. Says they would not pay planted largely in his locality, 

 if the experience of the last fifteen years is to be repeated. He lets the swine 

 have the culls. 



H. 31. Rice, Muscotah, Atchison county, a Kansan for twenty-nine years, 

 has twenty bearing trees set five years, and fifty set three years, growing on sandy 

 loam, which he considers the very best for them; says any slope will do. He is 

 growing Elberta, Crosby, and some others, bought of a reliable [?] nurseryman, 

 yet not true to name. Says he has not had experience enough with properly 

 named varieties to advise others what to plant for market or family. He prefers 

 good one-year-old trees, set 15x15 feet, cut to a walking-stick. Says Elberta 

 cooks on sunny side while on the tree. Not troubled with insects. Says the 

 leaves on his peach trees all curled up last spring [1898], which he thought was 

 caused by excessive wet weather. The rot was also very bad last year and de- 

 stroyed many peaches. He grows potatoes and clover among his trees, and 

 allows no live stock to roam among them. Has sold a few at home, at one dol- 

 lar per bushel. Says, further, "the great curse of the fruit-tree planter is the 

 substitution of inferior varieties [and seedlings] in tree orders by nurserymen." 

 He bought 100 trees in twelve varieties, only two of which came true as ordered^ 

 of one other he is uncertain — and, although he ordered no very late varieties, he 



