The Canadian Horticultun^ 



Floral Edition 



Vol. XXXIX 



PETERBORO, MARCH, 1916 



No. J? 



Seventeen Years' Experience in Peach Growing 



FOR seventeen years I have been ex- 

 perimenting in peach culture. 

 The farmers in this neighbor- 

 hood who had attempted to raise peach 

 trees did not have much success. The 



James Marshall, Hamilton, Ont. 



ing noticed this, I gradually kept plant- 

 ing trees each year on higher land, and 

 now I have my peach orchards planted 

 on the highest fields on the farm. 



The last trees I planted were put out 

 in the years 1912 and 1913 in the spring 

 of each year. The rows are five six- 

 teenths of a mile long, north and south, 

 and one-fourth of a mile long, east and 

 west. The trees are planted sixteen feet 

 by twenty-two feet apart. If I were 

 planting again I would plant them 

 eighteen by twenty-two feet apart, as 

 the young trees are now closing in 

 some, where sixteen feet apart, and we 

 require plenty of room for spraying 

 purposes. 



The site for a peach orchard should 

 be within three or four miles from a 

 large lake, which does not freeze over. 

 If possible, have it on an elevation, and 

 to the south of the lake, rather than to 

 the north of it, as the severity of the 

 cold is ameliorated by the northerly 

 winds passing over the open water. In 

 the Niagara Peninsula, we have two 

 lakes, Ontario and Erie, one to the north 

 and the other south. The> are a little 

 over thirty miles apart. I read in a 

 fruit paper that peach trees should not 

 be planted at more than an elevation of 

 two hundred feet aboVe the level of a 



lake. I beg to differ with this, as our 

 elevation of orchard is probably nearly 

 five hundred feet above the level of 

 Lake Ontario, and the trees here that 

 do the best are those on the highest 

 hills. 



Many growers say that sandy or 

 gravelly soil is the best for a peach 

 orchard. These soils generally afford 

 good natural drainage, while many clay 

 soils have a wet subsoil. If sandy or 

 gravelly soils have a wet subsoil, peach 

 trees will not thrive there. Underdrain- 

 ing two and one-half or three feet deep 

 is not sufficient for peach trees, as the 

 roots will strike into the moist soil, 

 which is injurious. If any person is 

 determined to grow peach trees where 

 there is a wet subsoil, they might pos- 

 sibly do so by underdraining about 

 seven feet deep, and placing the drains 

 not too far apart, provided that the site 

 is favorable in other respects. My ex- 

 perience has been with clay soil, fairly 

 heavy, there being no sandy soil on the 

 farm. Most of our trees are planted on 

 a limestone ridge, the trees doing well 

 with two feet of soil on rock, where 

 there are natural drains or sink-holes. 

 Where the soil is deep, and rather wet, 

 we make deep underdrains, and run the 

 water to sink-holes. We also plow up 



V one-year-old St. John peach tree in bearing in 

 the orchard of Jas. Marshall, Hamilton, Ont. 



trees did not live long, and the growers 

 became discouraged. Thus when I 

 started there were scarcely any peach 

 trees being planted in this section. 



The first thing to consider in peach 

 growing is to secure a suitable site for 

 the orchard. If the trees are planted in 

 low-lying land, where fog and heavy 

 dew is seen in the mornings, the site is 

 not suitable, no matter how rich the 

 soil is. The trees may grow fast and 

 rank, but when three or four years 

 planted, they are likely to die. I made 

 this mistake seventeen years ago last 

 spring, and the only peach trees that 

 are alive yet and bearing well are those 

 which were planted on the higher land, 

 having a slope towards the north. Hav- 





A portion of the peach orcharci .»r -J-ls Marsiiall. H.unilit 



