200 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



beyond where the fruit is set, leaving only a few 

 buds on each, of the succeeding year's fruit. The 

 size of the fruit is by these means rendered larger, 

 more beautiful, and of a higher flavour, arid the 

 growth of the tree is rendered more vigorous." 



" Mr. Thomas Coulter, of Bedford county, Penn- 

 sylvania, gives the following directions for cultivat- 

 ing peach trees, which he has successfully purged 

 in Pennsylvania arid Delaware, for forty-five years. 

 See Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. vol. v. 



" The principal causes of peach trees dying 

 while young, are the planting, transplanting, and 

 pruning the same stock; which causes the stock to 

 be open and tender, and the bark of the tree very 

 rough: this roughness of "the bark gives opportu- 

 nities to insects to lodge and breed in it ; and birds 

 search after these insects, for their support, and 

 with their sharp bills, wound the stock in many 

 places ; from which wound the sap of the tree is 

 drawn out, which congeals, and never fails to kill, 

 or to render the tree useless, in a few years. To 

 prevent which, transplant your peach trees, as 

 young as possible, where you mean them to stand ; 

 if in the kernel, so much the better ; because in 

 that case there will be no check of growth, which 

 always injures peach trees. Plant peach trees six- 

 teen feet apart, both ways, except you would wish 

 to take your wagon through the orchard to carry 

 the peaches away ; in that case, give twenty-four 

 feet distance to every fifth row, one way, after 

 transplanting. You may plough and harrow 

 amongst your peaches for two years, paying no 

 regard to wounding or tearing them, so that you do 

 not take them up by the roots. In the month of 

 March, or April, in the third year after transplant- 

 ing, cut them all off by the ground ; plough and har- 

 row amongst them as before, taking special care 

 not to wound or tear them in the smallest degree, 

 letting all the sprouts or scions grow, that will 



