PEA 



426 



PEA 



When the peaches ripen, they should | great and prevailing disposition of the 

 be carefully picked from step-ladders, peach tree in our climate is to over pro- 

 seven to eight feet high, into small liiuid- t duction of fruit in favourable seasons, 

 baskets, holding one peck each. Our , Our remedy for this is carefully to thin 

 operators for this purpose are both men it off by plucking all those that touch, 



and women, who earn from fifty to 

 seventy-five cents a day, besides being 

 found. These baskets are gently emp- 

 tied into the regular market baskets, 

 which are all marked with the owner's 

 name and strewed along the whole line 

 of orchard to be picked. As these are 



or are within two or three inches of 

 each other, when the size of hickory 

 nuts, which are thrown into some run- 

 ning stream or into the hog-pens to be 

 devoured. This mode ' of heading in,' 

 or pruning one half of the producing 

 buds, is new to me, but which I have 



filled they are put into spring wagons, just tried upon my garden trees in the 



holding from thirty to sixty baskets, and 

 taken to the wharf, or landing, where 

 there is a house, shed or awning, for 

 the purpose of assorting them, each 

 kind by itself, which is into prime and 

 cuUings — the prime being distinguished 

 rot only by their size and selection. 



city, and will be able to speak of expe- 

 rimentally, hereafter. With us in Dela- 

 ware, as everywhere else, the peach 

 tree succeeds best in a good soil. That 

 preferred is a rich sandy loam, with 

 clay. Many of my finest trees and 

 choicest fruits are grown in a loose and 



but also by a handful of peach leaves | stony soil. The trees should never be 

 scattered through the top. They are , set out in wet, low, or springy situa- 

 then put on board the boats in tiers, tions, and for the same reasons, high 

 separated by boards between, to keep and rolling ground shdtild be selected 

 them from injury, and so reach their! for your plantations, and for the addi 

 destined market. We consider a water 

 communication from the orchards, or 

 as near as may be, most essential, as all 

 land carriage more or less bruises or 

 destroys the fruit. Our roads through 

 the orchards and to the landings are 

 all kept ploughed and harrowed down 

 smooth and even. The baskets for 

 marketing the peaches are generally 

 obtained in New Jersey at twenty-five 

 to thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents 

 per hundred. With trifling modifica- 

 tions our culture and practice may be 



tional circumstance that they are less 

 obnoxious to early frosts." 



Wall- Culture. English Method. — 

 Borders should never be deeper than 

 eighteen or twenty inches for the peach, 

 and six feet wide. Soil chopped turfy 

 loam from a rich pasture, rather more 

 clayey than light — beneath a good 

 drainage, at least one foot deep, made 

 of broken bricks and stones, with an 

 outfill into a neighbouring ditch. 



Planting. — Two year old plants are 

 to be preferred, and planted as soon as 



made to suit not only the Southern but I the leaves begin to fall at the end of 

 the South- Western Stales. I may here, ; October. The best aspects are south 



perhaps, properly remark, that the ave- 

 rage life of our trees is from nine to 

 twelve years, when properly cared for 

 and protected as I have described ; that 

 the two great and devastating enemies 

 the trees have to contend against are 

 the peach worm and the yellows ; the 



and south-east. Plant, at the least, six- 

 teen feet apart ; the stem three inches 

 from the wall, inclining towards it. 

 Nail the branches to the wall, but do 

 not prune them. 



Summer Pruning is of far more im- 

 portance than that of the winter. 



first readily yielding to the knife and i " In May and June, and occasionally 

 the treatment of semi-annual examina- ; in the succeeding months, it is necessa- 

 tion ; the latter being a constitutional, ry to regulate the shoots of the same 

 consumptive, or marasmatic disease, for ; year, and to prevent improper growths 

 which no other remedy is as yet known j by disbudding. Pinch off fore right 

 or to be practiced but extirpation and buds or shoots; and pinch off or cut 

 destruction. There are many ^/leories i out ill-placed, very weakly, spongy, and 

 and some practice recorded on this, by deformed shoots, retaining a plentiful 



far the most destructive enemy of the 

 peach tree. I may hereafter give my 

 own views on this particular and ob- 

 scure disease. I concur, however, with 

 Mr. Downing, of Newburg, that the 



supply of good lateral shoots in all parts 

 of the tree, and leaving a leader to each 

 branch. 



" Let them mostly be trained in at 

 full length, all summer, about three 



