62 PEACH CULTURE. 



CHAPTER X. 



TAKING UP AND SENDING TO MARKET. 



Peach trees must be set in the orchard at one year's 

 growth from the bud, that is, the fall or spring after the 

 natural stock has been cut off, as described in the last 

 chapter. The progressive steps are these. Make the 

 seed-bed in the fall, the next spring plant the seed in the 

 nursery, the fall of the same year, bud ; the next spring, 

 top, and the next fall or spring, plant the trees in the 

 orchard. They will then be two-year-old from the seed, 

 and one year from the bud. 



With extensive nurserymen the fall and spring, but 

 especially the former, are busy times. Traveling and 

 local agents, as well as many immediate customers, have 

 been sending in, and are still continuing to send in their 

 orders. These have all to be numbered and entered in the 

 nursery order-book, and each compared and verified in 

 order to prevent mistakes. Labels have to be procured 

 and prepared, so that they may be at hand when wanted. 

 Boxes for packing, or, if the nurseryman makes his own 

 boxes, the material for them ; boards, lath, or scantling, 

 hoop-iron, nails, chaff, and straw, as well as saws, ham- 

 mers, etc. 



When these are all provided, and the hands engaged, 

 the nurseryman awaits the proper season to commence 

 work. When it comes it is a busy time, for all orders 

 have to be filled, and all shipments made within a few 

 weeks, and these may be curtailed by the early approach 

 of winter, which suspends all operations. The time to 

 commence taking up trees varies as the latitude. In the 

 North it will be much earlier than at the South. At 



