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PEA 



317 



but on the shoots made in the last 

 preceding year, Mr. Miller directs, 

 that the new shoots should be short- 

 ened, by cutting them yearly in 

 October, leaving them from five to 

 eight inches in length, according as 

 they are weaker or stronger. I 

 have practised this method of cut- 

 ting in October for several years ; 

 which has caused trees, which were 

 before barren, to bear some fruit. 

 And I observe that the branches of 

 the trees are not so often killed by 

 the frost in winter. But the trees 

 have nov/ become sickly and bar- 

 ren. 



Mr. Thomas Coulter of Bedford, 

 Penn. gives some directions for cul- 

 tivating peach trees, which he has 

 practised with success in Pennsyl- 

 vania and Delaware for forty-five 

 years. See Trans. Amer, Philad. 

 iSoc. vol. 5. 



Mr. Coulter advises to transplant 

 peach trees, as young as possible 

 when you mean them to stand ; if 

 in the kernel, so much the better. 

 To plant them 16 feet apart both 

 ways, except you would wish to 

 take your waggon through the or- 

 chard to carry the peaches away ; 

 in that case give 24 feet distance 

 to every fifth row, one way, after 

 transplanting. In the month of 

 March or April, in the third year 

 after transplanting, cut them all off 

 by the ground^^ndi let all the sprouts 

 and scions grow. From four to six 

 will, generally, come to maturity ; 

 the rest will die, and should be cut 

 away, taking care not to wound the 

 stock. The sprouts growing all 

 round the old stump, when loaded 

 with fruit, will bend and rest on the 

 ground in every direction, and will 



remain fruitful for many years. 

 Three years after the trees are cut 

 off by the ground, they will be suf- 

 ficiently large and bushy to shade 

 the ground so as to prevent grass 

 of any kind from matting or bind- 

 ing the surface, so as to injure the 

 trees ; therefore ploughing is use- 

 less, as well as injurious ; useless 

 because nothmg can be raised in 

 the orchard by reason the trees 

 will shade all the ground, or near- 

 ly so ; injurious because either the 

 roots, stock or branches will be 

 wounded. 



Mr. Coulter says that peach trees 

 should have no manure, as it cau- 

 ses them to produce worse and 

 smaller fruit. 



A blue fly attacks peach trees 

 from about the middle of July to 

 the middle of September, and gen- 

 erally deposits its eggs in the bark 

 at the surface of the ground. These 

 eggs hatch into worms, which eat 

 ofT the bark quite round the tree. 

 To guard against this, raise a little 

 hillock in the month of June round 

 the tree, about a foot high, so as 

 completely to cover that part of 

 the bark, kept moist and tender at 

 the surface of the ground. This 

 hillock will not stand so long atone 

 height as to make tender the bark 

 above, as the rain will gradually 

 wash it down level with the surface, 

 and it must be raised again every 

 summer. 



To take out the worm, the roots 

 must be uncovered, and the spot 

 looked for where the gum oozes 

 out ; follow the cavity round with 

 the point of a knife, until you come 

 to the solid wood, and lay the whole 

 open 5 the worm will be found, 



