The Cultivation of the Fruit-Farm 157 



bulletins and calendar and the active, resolute, 

 sensible man will speedily rout them. 



Peaches like pltmis invite enemies, and of a 

 different sort, — yellows, curl-leaf, root-gall, and of 

 course the borer, the fungi that cause rot of tree 

 and fruit and some obscure diseases of which as yet 

 we know practically nothing. Despite these dis- 

 couragements, peaches are raised with profit in 

 the Valley. But as yet spraying peach trees is 

 somewhat uncommon there. He who sprays has 

 fine peaches and many. The freezing and thawing 

 of the soil undoes the peach tree, but this fatality 

 may easily be avoided by proper management of 

 the soil, — ^winter protection by cover-crops, and 

 vigorous feeding of the tree. Peach trees are 

 beneficiaries or victims of climate, but oftener, are 

 victims of the fruit-grower's neglect. Peach cul- 

 ture is bound to confine itself to what may be 

 called the natural peach regions of the cotmtry, of 

 which the Valley is one. 



Sour cherries are less liable than sweet cherries to 

 disease and to insect and fungi pests. Mildew, 

 brown rot, the curculio, the slug, the borer, partly 

 exhaust the list. These attack all cherry trees, 

 sweet or sour. But remedies are known, are 

 available and the fruit-grower need not fear to 

 undertake cherry culture provided he is clearly 

 within the climatic cherry-belt. Follow the borer 

 with a wire; Paris green kills the slugs, — and men 

 also if carelessly handled; the Bordeaux mixture 

 checks the ravages of most cherry enemies. The 



