SHELTERING THE PEACH. 133 



thing. That is a hard and painful job. It requires a slender 

 pair of tweezers, because the bunches ought not to be bruised 

 in the slightest degree. When you have done that, water your 

 plants until about the first of June, and that is about all the 

 work there is to be done. When it gets to be about the first of 

 November, and the leaves are falling from the vine, then trim 

 them, which is a simple thing. Cut off close the stems which 

 bore fruit this year, and leave every other. Then paint them 

 over with a paint made of soap and sulphur, lay them down, 

 and cover them up with pine boughs. In that way you raise 

 the best grapes in the country, at very little expense. You can 

 raise peaches and grapes, if you will only assist nature a little 

 in her efforts. 



James Thompson, of Nantucket. I will say a single word in 

 confirmation of what the last speaker has said with reference to 

 peaches. In the garden of the house next to mine, a peach 

 tree came up, close to the house, blossomed and bore fruit 

 once, and never bore any more. The old lady who is there 

 alone in the house, shut a blind back against one of the 

 branches, and it grew up behind the blind. It was not 

 disturbed until the first of October, and then, when she shut 

 the blind, that branch was found to be literally loaded with 

 ripe fruit, as big as my fist, and delicious in quality. There 

 was not a peach to be seen on any other part of the tree. 



A Member. I want to ask one question of a practical nature. 

 Allusion has been made to the raising of peach trees in pots, to 

 be sheltered in winter. I want to inquire what sort of shelter 

 is necessary. Will sheltering these pots in a barn answer the 

 purpose, or must they be carried into the cellar ? 



Mr. Brown. I put mine in the barn cellar, where I keep my 

 farming implements. Last spring, you never beheld a more 

 beautiful sight than those peach trees were. They were as 

 beautiful a bouquet as you ever saw in your life. I told the 

 man to take them out at once, but unfortunately there came a 

 nipping frost, which nearly ruined them all, for fruit. 



A Member. I have no doubt they would be sufficiently 

 protected in the cellar, but what I ask is, would it answer to 

 put them on the barn floor ? 



Mr. Brown. I do not think it would. They need an even 

 temperature. 



