PEACHES IN WESTERN NEW YOEK 1071 



The cultural system that is generally meeting with favor is to 

 plow or cultivate three inches deep as early in spring as possible, 

 ordinarily about the first of May; then to cultivate with a harrow 

 every ten days or after every rain, in order to conserve soil mois- 

 ture. This cultivation is usually discontinued about July 15. In 

 case of a large crop of fruit or a dry period, cultivation is often 

 continued well into August. 



Under the present system of intensive clean cultivation, the 

 humus is rapidly exhausted from the soils, and in order to keep 

 the vigor and frmtfulness of the orchard, it becomes necessary to 

 add barnyard manure. The same results are being obtained with 

 leguminous cover crops wherever they are being consistently used. 



PRUNING METHODS 



If not pruned, the peach tree naturally grows upright, adding 

 one year's growth above another and forming only a few main 

 limbs that are long and brittle and break easily under a load of 

 fruit. It therefore becomes necessary to adopt a system of prun- 

 ing that will spread the tree, conserve its vigor, renew its growth, 

 and keep the bearing wood low. This means that in the young 

 orchard fh'e pruning shears must be freely used in order to start a 

 low head with spreading top, which is done by cutting the pre- 

 vious year's growth well back to an outside bud. 



The open center peach tree is found to be most practicable. 

 This allows for a better circulation of air and more sunlight, thus 

 producing fruit of good color and reducing its liability to fun- 

 gous diseases. 



The mistake is commonly made of planting peach trees too 

 close together, the distance varying all the way from 16 x 16 feet 

 to 20 x 20 feet, a common distance being 18 x 18 feet. This dis- 

 tance is not sufficient for mature trees; the trees crowd and are 

 forced to grow high. A better distance would be from 20 to 25 

 feet each way depending on the strength of the ground. With 

 this distance, enough space would be allowed to adopt a system of 

 pruning which would start. the head low and spread the top, keep- 

 ing the bearing wood low so that the fruit could always be har- 

 vested with a five-foot stepladder. . The writer prefers that these 

 heads be kept so low that even a stepladder is unnecessary in har- 

 vesting. Many of the older orchards were started with high 



