THE KANSAS PEACH. 133 



P. C. Boweii, Cherryvale, Montgomery county, has lived in Kansas nineteen 

 years. Has grown many peaches. Has now 2.31 trees — all choice budded varie- 

 ties, no seedlings — 200 planted from six to twelve years, in sandy loam. He 

 likes a gravelly subsoil, and, if possible, a northern or western slope. He is now 

 growing Alexander, Anderson, Wager, Foster, Stump, Early and Late Crawford, 

 Chinese and Heath Cling, and others. Has discarded Amsden and most early 

 varieties because they are unsalable and rot badly. For market, he recommends 

 Chinese Cling and late varieties. Says "market is always flooded with early 

 varieties, and they do not keep well." For family, he would grow Alexander, 

 Early Crawford, Stump, and a few Wager and Foster. Always plants one-year- 

 olds, twenty feet apart, trimming to a stick twenty inches high, and trimming 

 the bruised and broken roots from under side with sharp knife. When bearing 

 trees get tall and old he cuts out the old wood and allows a new head to form. 

 His Alexander and Amsden ripen in June: Heath Cling in October. The cold 

 of February, 1899, killed the peach fruit-buds on all varieties. His early peaches 

 often cook in sun while on the tree. Curculio is bad on about all kinds. Has 

 sprayed, but no benefit was perceptible. Says honey-bees and flies injure his 

 peaches, and that borers are very destructive. Never saw a case of curl or yellows 

 in Kansas; grows no crop among the trees, and allows no hogs and chickens in 

 orchard. Picks very carefully in baskets, and ships in one-third-bushel crates — 

 sometimes in peck and half-peck baskets, each peach wrapped in tissue paper, 

 always packing tight; rejects overripe, soft or scabby specimens. His best mar- 

 kets are Kansas City and Cherryvale ; says they often go for commission and ex- 

 pressage, and that he most emphatically believes it would not pay to plant largely 

 for shipping from his locality. Feeds refuse to swine. 



F. L. Kenoyer, Independence, Montgomery county: I have a peach or- 

 chard of 140 trees, of which 115 are budded and 25 seedlings from choice varie- 

 ties; eighty-five of these, all budded, were set out in 1895 and the remainder in 

 1896, making the trees four and three years old. The seedlings have not fruited 

 yet. In addition to these I have a number of old seedling trees with which I 

 I have been experimenting on cultivation and pruning. My orchard is on rich, 

 sandy loam, sloping slightly to the south. This is ideal peach soil. Any slope is 

 good for peaches, and almost any soil, if well drained, but sandy loam is best. 

 The varieties I have are Amsden, Sallie Worrell, Crawford's Early, Crawford's 

 Late, Heath Free, Heath Cling, Stump, Elberta, Foster, Smocji, Admirable, and 

 Chinese Cling. For this locality I would recommend, for both family use and 

 market, those that ripen in midsummer. Early peaches are more troubled by 

 curculio and the rot fungus, while the late varieties are injured more by leaf -curl 

 and black spot, which, combined with the hot, dry weather of August, causes them 

 to fail to mature. Probably if the curl and spot could be eradicated they would 

 mature properly. The late frosts of last spring [1898], and also of the preceding 

 spring, revealed a weakness in some of our most popular peaches. The petals of 

 the Elberta, Crawford, Stump, Smock and some others are small and undevel- 

 oped, furnishing but little protection against spring frosts. All of the defective- 

 blossom varieties in southern Kansas and Missouri were badly "nipped in the 

 bud," while the varieties that had their infant fruits snugly folded in a fully de- 

 veloped corolla escaped unharmed and bore a full crop of peaches. The most crit- 

 ical time for the peach is just before it is in full bloom, when it is liable to be injured 

 by frost. The blossoms with rudimentary petals open at the tip of the buds al- 

 most as soon as the pink is in sight, while those with fully developed petals com- 

 pletely hide the tender peach until in full bloom. The experiment stations have 



