i6o 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



ning to dwindle down. There is a demand 

 for fruit then, and it can be suppHed with 

 the late fall pears ; but if one waits too long 

 the hothouse fruits come in and cause prices 



to decline. Some of this fruit can be kept 

 for the holidays, but only such pears as have 

 fine, fair outside appearances. — American 

 Cultivator. 



ais( 



TREATING FROZEN PEACH THEES 



^HE very cold weather of the past two 

 months has done great damage to 

 the peach trees of New England and Hud- 

 son valley in New York. In a very large 

 majority of cases the fruit buds have been 

 killed and the crop of 1904 annihilated. In 

 a large number of instances the wood has 

 also been frozen and the trees damaged. 

 Hundreds or even thousands of trees are 

 reported to be killed to the ground. It is 

 quite certain that a large proportion of all 

 the trees are killed back more or less. 



The best treatment for peach trees thus 

 injured by freezing is to cut the tops back 

 in proportion to the damage. In any case 

 it will be proper to cut away all the dead 

 wood, leaving, only that which is strong 

 enough to make a fairly vigorous start of 

 buds in the spring. This can be determined 

 in general by cutting into a branch with the 

 pruning knife. If the wood is black inside, 

 or if it shows considerable discolored layers, 

 it is probably either dead or so much in- 



jured that it will not start its buds vigor- 

 ously. 



In cases of moderate freezing, this rule 

 would require only the removal of the shoots 

 grown in 1903. In more serious cases it 

 would be necessary to cut back into two- 

 year-old wood. In a deplorably large num- 

 ber of orchards it will mean cutting away 

 all the main branches, leaving only the 

 trunks and a few stubs. Even such severe 

 pruning as this is practicable, particularly 

 with young trees, and is far better than 

 sacrificing the trees altogether. 



It will probably be useful also, in connec- 

 tion with the cutting back of frozen trees, 

 to give them a vigorous start in the spring 

 by early cultivation of the ground and by 

 the application of a small amount of some 

 quick-acting nitrogenous fertilizer like nit- 

 rate of soda. In applying nitrate of soda, 

 from three to five pounds should be given 

 to each tree. — American Agriculturist. 



REHEADING PEACH TREES IN ORCHARDS 



IN American Agriculturist last winter at- 

 tention was called to the changing of 

 one variety to another in a well established 

 peach orchard ; also pictures were shown of 

 a large orchard that had been cut back and 

 new heads started. 1 he discarding of the 

 unfavorable and unpopular varieties, cut- 

 ting back the heads and rebudding another 



variety on the same tree is becoming more 

 popular year after year as fruit growers be- 

 come familiar with conditions. 



A young orchard on the eastern end of 

 Long Island, which was being changed from 

 one variety to another, was inspected last 

 summer. The trees were four years old 

 and were making a splendid growth, but the 



