198 Fruit 



Plant lice on peach, cherry, and plum trees should 

 be sprayed with a solution of nicotine sulphate, add- 

 ing about three pounds of soap to every one 

 hundred gallons of nicotine to make it stick better. 

 After the leaves curl no successful treatment is 

 possible. 



Peach trees afflicted with the peach borer should 

 be treated by first cutting out, or digging out with 

 a wire, the obnoxious insects and spraying with 

 lime sulphur. This should be done in October and 

 again in May as some of the small ones may have 

 been overlooked in the fall. In cases where it is 

 practicable, the earth may be mounded up about 

 a foot high around the trunks in June and re- 

 moving it in September as a protection. There 

 are patented protectors to be bought for this 

 purpose. 



In pruning peach trees, three or four main 

 branches should be left at the end of the first 

 season, which should be shortened to about a foot 

 in length and allowed to divide into three or four 

 branches during the next season's growth. The 

 more rapid the growth of new wood, the nearer the 

 tips the fruit buds will be found, hence it is a mis- 

 take to prune this fruit too soon. 



