274 FLORIDA FRUITS PEACHES AND PLUMS. 



take our advice and saw and cut and clip now at once, till 

 little is left but the trunk and three short branches at the 

 top ; then hoe away the weeds, and next spring give a dress- 

 ing of the fertilizer we have specified, and our word for it, 

 one or two years hence those old "worn-out" trees will 

 bear profusely, fine, ripe peaches, not leathery ones. 



Summer pruning is best for bearing trees ; it forces out 

 new shoots for next season's bearing, while spring pruning 

 is better for young trees. 



Peach trees, in fact all fruit trees, are a great deal like 

 children; they need care and constant attention to con- 

 duct them safely " in the way they should go." 



A good many persons, new to the business, appear to 

 think that all one has to do, to have a fine orchard and 

 large yearly crops of fruit, is to plant the trees and then 

 let them alone to struggle along as they best may. But 

 this is an erroneous and fatal idea ; fruit trees have their 

 enemies in scores, and as their attacks produce disease, and 

 ultimately death, if not checked in time, it behooves the 

 fruit growers to be ever on the war-path. 



The most deadly of the insect enemies of the peach tree 

 is the white worm, familiarly known as the "borer," which, 

 entering the trunk, usually below but sometimes above the 

 collar where the bark is soft, burrows into the very center 

 of the wood, if allowed, and destroys the tree by literally 

 " eating its heart out." 



There are several .ways of waging war on these burro w- 

 ers, and here are some of them : 



When you observe a tree losing its usual thrifty appear- 

 ance, its leaves dropping or turning brown, you may be 

 pretty sure that a borer is "at the bottom of it," and if 

 you look closely on the ground, at the root of the tree, you 

 will notice a little pile of reddish sawdust. Seeing this 

 you may know at once that you are on the right trail, and 



