154 THE KANSAS PEACH. 



A SHORT SUMMARY OF THE KANSAS PEACH. 



BY THE SECRETARY. 



The peach being a native of a milder climate than ours, we should employ 

 every agency possible to protect it from the rigors of our winter weather. 



No fruit we grow is more delicious, nor commands better returns. 



Our energies should be applied to finding out how to grow it successfully and 

 surely every year. 



Xo fruit is more profitable when well grown. 



Peach orchards should not be cropped after the third year, and if on sandy 

 or light loam it is best not to plant anything under them at any time. 



Stir the soil frequently from April to August. 



Never seed down a peach orchard, and never plant it to grain of any kind — 

 unless it be corn for first two or three years, on strong land. 



Carelessness and neglect will constantly deteriorate and detract from the use- 

 fulness and value of a peach orchard, and bring only a crop of di-gust and aggra- 

 vation. 



Barn-yard manure must be used very sparingly, as it tends too much to succu- 

 lent woody growth and much leafage ; ashes and bones will produce the best re- 

 sults in fruit. 



In pruning, I should say no peach tree in Kansas ought to grow over twelwe 

 feet high; head back one-third of each year's growth, and when they get too 

 large cut back to limb stubs and form a new top. 



Peaches growing twelve feet from the earth can scarcely be gathered with 

 profit, and if they fall, either by carelessness or accident, they are ruined, and 

 thus the utility of the tree and its growth are neutralized. 



Use the package demanded by your market, but be sure to pack closely, so 

 that they may not roll about and chafe or bruise. 



Advertise your business, your county and your state by a nice label on every 

 package. 



Haul to market or the shipping place in a spring vehicle piloted by a careful 

 driver. 



Finally, my brethren, I wish to add one thing of paramount importance: if you 

 buy your peach trees, buy from your home nursery — from men who have a reputa- 

 tion to sustain, and who consider you as a fellow citizen and neighbor, and will 

 treat you right. The "stranger's" greatest talent is his "gab," and his printed 

 and painted material. And while in some cases these may be all right, yet in many 

 cases when the trees come into bearing they produce more disappointment, cha- 

 grin, exasperation and condemnation than fruit; and many a Christian has felt 

 the murderous instinct well up within him at the full exposure of the damnable 

 trick perpetrated on him two, three or five years previous by some irresponsible 

 agent of a foreign, and generally also irresponsible, nursery. This watchword 

 will lead toward success: 



"Kansas Trees for Kansas Planters." 



