344 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



He replied at once, "Oh! yes, there is, 

 Mr. Root; they are the very best places in 

 the world to grow peach-trees. Just plant 

 the trees all over these steep hills and you 

 will find the hills are the best and most 

 profitable land on j'our ranch." 



Since then I have learned, as you know-, 

 that the ground on those side-hills, after the 

 trees and underbrush are removed, is splen- 

 did to grow corn or potatoes, garden crops, 

 or an}' thing ; and the few peach-trees I 

 planted last year made a most wonderful 

 growth. In fact, this spring many of them 

 were covered with blossom-buds. Last sum- 

 mer I kept the ground fine and mellow with 

 a garden-rake; in fact, I made a dust mulch 

 around ever}' tree; and before a weed had 

 started I raked a circle all around the trees, 

 six or eight feet across, and kept it raked 

 up fine until about the first of August. 

 After that we did not encourage the trees to 

 grow any more. Well, they have wintered 

 on those steep hillsides without the loss of 

 a bud or twig. 



Now, I suppose I am not very much of an 

 authority on peach -growing; but I have 

 been reading books and papers, and study- 

 ing the subject up with most keen interest; 

 and I think I can tell you why so many 

 people fail with peaches. 



In the first place, the ground must be 

 kept clean and mellow around the tree, just 

 as much as it must be around a stalk of 

 corn or a hill of potatoes to get a good crop. 

 How can you expect peaches when the 

 weeds are almost as high as ihe tree itself, 

 and the ground full of all sorts of trash all 

 around its trunk? Keep your peach-or- 

 chard under cultivation just as much as 

 you would your cornfield. Second, a peach- 

 tree, if left alone, will make altogether too 

 much top. In fact, most varieties of peaches 

 will make a veritable brush-pile if left to 

 themselves. Then the branches will be 

 pushed away out in order to get out of said 

 brush-pile, and the peaches will grow on 

 the ends of the limbs, where they can get 

 the sun and air; then if there should hap- 

 pen to be a good crop, the weight of the 

 fruit tears the tree all to pieces. 



Some 3'ears ago I passed a peach-orchard 

 that had been planted and cared tor by a 

 man who was an enthusiast. About the 

 time it was ready to give its first good crop 

 he left it and went away off somewhere 

 else. The trees, in response to the good 

 start they had, were loaded with fruit ; but 

 as there was nobody to thin it out nor even 

 to prune off the excess of top, the trees 

 broke down under their weight of peaches 

 until almost every tree in the orchard was 

 ruined. I saw it after the fruit was gath- 

 ered, and it looked as if a big storm or cy- 

 clone had torn every tree to pieces. Modern 

 peach-growing consists in keeping the root 

 in advance of the top; then cut back and 

 thin out every spring until all the branches 

 that are left are full of vigor and life. 

 You know how common it is to see peach- 

 trees with almost half of the limbs or twigs 

 dead and dying. Scientific pruning will 



correct all of this. There will never be a 

 dead leafless twig if it is pruned properly. 

 Then if the fruit is thinned out as it should 

 be, there will be no "June drop; " in fact, 

 with the right kind of "heroic" thinning 

 not a peach will drop to the ground — that 

 is, unless stung by insects; and we are al- 

 most a match for the insects and fungous 

 diseases."" 



In regard to this matter of pruning, let 

 me quote from the Michigan Fa^-mer of 

 Sept. 7, 1901 : "Each and every peach-tree 

 that would produce, probably, 1500 or 2000 

 fruits, should be pruned and thinned until 

 the same tree produces only 200 or 300 

 peaches. Such drastic pruning will not be 

 acceptable to many. They would claim 

 that more would be received from 2000 

 peaches than from 200 or 300; but when the 

 difference in cost of picking, packing, and 

 shipping of these two quantities of fruit is 

 considered, the profit will be found every 

 time on the side of the smaller shipments." 



You see, the markets are all the while 

 flooded with common average or fair peaches. 

 In fact, most markets are liable to be glut- 

 ted with them; but with this method of 

 pruning and thinning I have spoken of, 

 every peach on the tree would attract at- 

 tention by its size and beauty. A small 

 basketful placed in sight in front of a gro- 

 cer}' will cause people to stop, and lift up 

 their hands in surprise. On one of my 

 wheelrides I passed some trees that had 

 been managed in this way. I told the own- 

 er of the trees to ship half a dozen half- 

 peck baskets to Medina, and I would pa^' 

 the bill. He said I might object 1o the 

 price when I learned what he was getting 

 for them. I told him I did not care much 

 what the price was. I wanted them to ex- 

 hibit around among my friends to illustrate 

 the possibilities of scientific peach-growing. 

 My impression is that I had to pay either 

 40 or 50 cents for a half-peck basket, or be- 

 tween $3 and $4 a bushel. Such peaches 

 always sell. There is no trouble about get- 

 ting a market. 



Now, I can not take the space right here 

 to go into this matter of scientific peach- 

 growing. In the same issue of the Michi- 

 gan Farmer just quoted from is an exhaus- 

 tive article by Roland Morrill; and if you 

 are interested in the matter you had better 

 write and eret it. Although the article is a 



*Our nearest neighbor had a verj- pretty little peach- 

 orchard of perhaps two dozen trees last summer. I 

 say she had an orchard, because last fall the trees were 

 so heavily loaded with fruit away out to the ends of 

 the long sprawling branches that the limbs broke one 

 after another until now the greater part of the trees 

 are ruined. One Sunday afternoon we would hear a 

 crash every little while from the limbs breaking. 

 Now, these trees were pruned improperly to start 

 with Then they were allowed lo overbear out on the 

 ends of those limbs. The result was, the limbs split 

 off or split the tree right in two where they startt-d oiT 

 from the trunk. A properly pruned peach-tree has 

 its fruit evenly distriliuttd ail over the tree, and none 

 of it very far away from the ti unk ; 5'et the head of 

 the tree is suflticieutly open so that the peaches ripen 

 and color up nicely through every part of the top. It 

 wants sense, science, brains, and stick-lo-it-iveness to 

 make a peach-tree grow just as it should, and keep do- 

 ing so. 



