162 



May the trees will grow all right. Make it a point however, 

 to get the trees planted just as early as possible. 



Next comes the fertilizing of the older orchards and the 

 harrowing. This may or may not be the first harrowing. 

 Just as soon as the ground is dry enough we start the har- 

 row, working one Avay one week, and crossways the next. 

 Let neither haying nor hoeing interfere with the harrowing 

 but keep at it every week from early spring until the last 

 of July or first of August. When the fertilizing is done, 

 we dig the borers, and hoe the young trees. In August and 

 first part of September we trim the young trees. 



If we are blessed with a crop we begin to harvest it 

 toward the last of July. Before harvesting begins we go 

 through the orchard every five or six rows tying back th<i 

 limbs and raking out the stone to make a road so as to get 

 through with a one horse wagon. This wagon should be so 

 rigged as to carry 40 or 50 baskets. Two men can draw a 

 great many more peaches in a day on a wagon of this kind 

 than on one that will carry 15 or so. At this time of all 

 times we want the work to count. The peaches are picked 

 and set beside these roads. Later the men go through and 

 pick up the baskets and draw them to the packing shed, 

 which is located in the orchard. Plan to keep all the work 

 as near together as possible. Then it is easier to look after 

 and if it is necessary to change part of the help from one kind 

 of work to another, there is not so much lost time. For 

 instance, if the packing shed is right in the orchard and one 

 wishes to load a wagon of 200 or 300 or more baskets in a 

 hurry, he can call a gang of pickers and in a very few min- 

 utes the load is ready to go. 



The peaches are picked by sight, not by touch, for the 

 latter way takes too much time. Divide the pickers into 

 gangs and put a foreman in charge of each gang. The size 

 of the gangs depends upon the kind of men that make up 

 the gang. If they are men of experience that will work 

 anyway then the foreman can take charge of 7 or 8, and pick 

 himself. If however, they are inexperienced pickers and 

 are men that are in the habit of working under a boss, don't 



