THE KANSAS PEACH. 115 



old peach trees in the orchard of Sam Ishmael, at Kiowa, called Southern Early, 

 that he believes are the hardiest in bud of any good peach he knows; tree very 

 vigorous, with large leaves; fruit very large, free; ripens between early and late, 

 when good peaches are scarce. He also has grown the Comet, an excellent y)earer, 

 of better quality than Rivers, which it should sufjersede." The Comet is the 

 parent of Goldsboro, which should supersede Alexander, Amsden, etc. 



A. S. Hurt", Sharon, Barber county, has been in Kansas twenty-nine years, 

 and has 2000 peach trees, planted from three to eleven years, on sandy loam, which 

 he prefers. His trees are all seedlings but 100: most of his seedlings bear choice 

 fruit. Of budded varieties he has Elberta, Alexander, Amsden, Crawford's 

 Early and Late, Acme, Triumph, and four others — names lost. He has discarded 

 most early kinds except Arkansas Traveler, Alexander, and Early Crawford, be- 

 cause they are of no account for anything. He would recommend for market, in 

 his vicinity, Elberta, Crosby, Acme, and plenty of good seedlings. He plants 

 two-year-old trees, sixteen feet apart, trimmed according to shape most pleasing 

 to his eye, cutting back both top and roots somewhat. His earliest varieties are 

 Alexander, Arkansas Traveler, and Crawford's Early; his latest are Parks and 

 Picquet's, in September. The cold weather did not injure his trees any but hurt 

 the fruit-buds of all varieties. His peaches often cook on the trees on the 

 sunny side when it is awful dry. He is not troubled with curculio; has never 

 sprayed; is troubled with peach-borer some, but has no peach-tree diseases. He 

 does not irrigate ; grows nothing among his trees, and allows no live stock near 

 them. Picks from a ladder and sorts at the same time. Markets in baskets, 

 from peck to one-half bushel, packing with great care in order to ship well, re- 

 jecting all unmarketable fruit, which he feeds to the hogs : ships his best quality 

 to Colorado points, receiving from 25 cents to $1.75 per bushel. Does not think 

 it would pay to plant largely in his locality. Thinks sixty per cent, of the peach 

 buds were killed by the cold. Barber county is very near the center of the state. 



Ben. McCuHog-li, EUinwood, Barton county, has been in Kansas twenty- 

 three years, and has 2000 peach trees, mostly seedlings, which he claims are of 

 good quality; they are from four to six years old, and planted on black, sandy 

 soil, which he believes to be the right kind. Says that he has been "fooled" 

 so much by tree agents that he has ceased purchasing budded trees; plants 

 only the best of pits, growing his own trees, from which he sells large quantities 

 of peaches. He is perfectly satisfied with both free and clingstones of his own 

 growing. He plants in rows, from eight to ten feet apart, taking young sprouts 

 two to three inches high from a bed of seeds stratified with earth the previous 

 fall. He prunes back well during the first summer, also cutting back bearing 

 trees, for they grow too high, and he knows it is beneficial. The extremely cold 

 weather of the past winter froze the tips of some of the limbs on young trees. 

 Curculio troubles his early peaches some; also has trouble with borers. He 

 grows no crop among his peach trees, does not irrigate, and allows no live stock 

 near them. Picks from a step-ladder, and sells all his fruit at home, parties 

 often coming fifty miles from the south and north. He receives from twenty- 

 five cents to one dollar, and thinks they would pay if planted largely in his vicin- 

 ity. If refuse is not too badly rotted he gives it away. He says, further: " If a 

 man will take pains as I do, he can raise good peaches from the pits. I get the 

 best of pits from the best seedlings, put them in a bed, and keep them wet all 

 winter. I prepare my ground, and when they come up in the spring, and are two 

 or three inches high, I put them out. Five hundred I put out this spring in that 



