512 SCOTT COUNTY, IOWA. 



scattering trees set along the fences, and these bore fruit oc- 

 casionally. 



I observed that when the trees did bear, the fruit brought 

 twice as much money as the fruit from the same number of 

 apple trees did ; therefore I came to the conclusion that more 

 money would be derived from a peach orchard, with less labor, 

 than from any other kind of fruit. This fact determined me 

 to turn my attention to raising peaches. 



PLANTING. 



In the Fall of 1870, 1 saved a lot of pits, and planted them 

 in November of the same year. I prepared the bed by throw- 

 ing up the soil with a spade, six or eight inches deep. Leveled 

 the bed down smooth, sowed in the pits and "spanked" them 

 down level with the earth. I covered with boards, and filled the 

 crevices with earth. The process was now complete. My object 

 in covering in this way is obvious, as the boards could be raised 

 carefully in eaily Spring to ascertain the length of the germ, 

 so as to xeraove them to the nursery row at the proper time. 

 The sprouts were not allowed to get more than an inch 

 long before setting. The distance apart in the row was not 

 less than twelve inches, so as to allow room for digging. 

 The rows were not less than three feet apart. 



NURSERY STOCK. 



My nursery stock grew finely under the thorough culti- 

 vation I gave it with hoe and cultivator. Some attained the 

 hight of five feet the first year. In the month of April, 1872, 

 I set an orchard of eight hundred trees, the ground having 

 been previously prepared and laid off for corn, in rows three 

 feet and ten inches each way. I then set in every fourth 

 check, making the rows fifteen feet four inches wide. I culti- 

 vated in corn for two years. The trees made rapid growth, 

 but in 1874, the cold Winter killed them back the prior year's 

 growth. In 1875, they threw out new shoots and filled nicely 

 with fruit buds. In 187G, I procured four hundred bushels of 

 very fair fruit from the eight hundred trees set as above stated. 



