64 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST . 



THE PEACH. 



• HE Kansas State Horticultural Society 

 has published a volume on the peach, 

 giving very complete directions for 

 planting, care, gathering, and marketing this 

 fruit. A considerable amount of the matter is 

 unsuited to Ontario, but we make a few ex- 

 tracts of portions that are applicable to our 

 conditions. 



SOIL. 



The soil for a peach orchard should, if pos- 

 sible, have a good clay subsoil, naturally well 

 drained, and be rich enough to produce a fair 

 crop of wheat or corn to the acre. 



Some people appear to think that if they 

 have an old field that is so exhausted it will not 

 produce profitable farm crops any longer, and 

 is washing into gullies, there is the place to 

 plant an orchard. No greater mistake can be 

 made. If you are not willing to devote good 

 land to the orchard, our advice would be to let 

 the business alone. In the region of country 

 for which I am writing we find that the so-called 

 red lands, as well as the grey, and those that 

 are composed of sandy loam with a clay sub- 

 soil, all produce first-class peaches. 



PREPARATION. 



The entire surface should be plowed deeply 

 before plantmg ; then check each way with a 

 plow, planting where the furrows cross each 

 other. Dig the holes sufificiently large to ad- 

 mit the roots without cramping. In locations 

 where the subsoil is poor, it is advisable to dig 

 a hole, say three feet in diameter and eighteen 

 inches deep, and then fill up with good surface 

 soil, leaving the excavation that is to receive 

 the tree of such a depth that the tree, when 

 planted, will be about the same depth, or a 

 little deeper, than it grew in the nursery. The 

 proper distance apart for planting is from six- 

 teen to twenty feet each way. In orchards with 

 sloping or uneven surface we generally recom- 

 mend locating the rows as near a horizontal 



line as practicable, about eighteen feet apart, 

 and the trees in the rows sixteen feet apart. 



VARIETIES. 



The selection of varieties for the commercial 

 orchard is a point that is vital to its success 

 and in making this selection there are a num- 

 ber of considerations that demand our atten- 

 tion. While I do not condemn new varieties, 

 yet it is wisdom on the part of the commercial 

 grower to " touch them lightly " until he has 

 tested them himself, or they have been tested 

 by others in soils and locations similar to his 

 own. Then there is the matter of hardiness in 

 fruit, and consequently greater certainty in pro- 

 ducing regular and paying crops. For while a 

 variety may be beautiful in appearance and 

 first-class in flavor, it may, on account of its 

 unproductiveness, be unworthy of a place in 

 the commercial orchard. The grower should 

 also study the markets that he wishes to supply, 

 that he may learn what style of peaches is most 

 in demand in these markets. He should also 

 study the production of other peach centres 

 with which he may be brought in competition. 

 For instance, if some other favored locality 

 sends, at a certain season, large quantities of 

 some leading, first-class variety to market, it 

 would not be wise to endeavor to compete with 

 them at the same season with any variety in the 

 smallest degree inferior to what they are send- 

 ing in such large quantities to the market. 



The commercial grower should therefore con- 

 fine his list to a few varieties. If the fruit is 

 being grown for a home market, then, of course, 

 a great range would be admissable. 

 A good reason for planting only a few varieties 

 is that this will enable the grower to have his 

 fruit carried to the market at less expense. 

 Having large quantities to ripen at once, he can 

 ship by car-loads. The difference in cost be- 

 tween this method and express, affords quite a 

 profit in itself. If I were planting an orchard 

 of only 5000 trees, and had no one at the same 



