THE CULTIVATION AND DISEASES OF THE PEACH. 59 



You who are older than I can well remember when peaches were 

 very abundant almost all over New P^ngland ; and in my boyhood 

 da^'S there were many old stumps of trees and a few in fair condi- 

 tion on our home farm in Connecticut that produced some fruit, but 

 nothing when compared with the glory of the past, as told of by our 

 ancestors, in the good old times when peaches were more plenty 

 than apples and much less valuable, as they could not be sold and 

 would not keep. 



My mother has often told me of being obliged, when a girl, to 

 pick up peaches for the pigs every day in their season, both 

 before going to and after returning from school, till she fairly 

 hated the sight of them. This was fifty years or more ago, and 

 various records show that the peach has been cultivated in New 

 England to some extent for more than two hundred years, yet it is 

 classed as a semi-tropical fruit and by many not thought reliable 

 north of the fortieth parallel. 



Yet, having the proof that they were once abundant in our 

 section of the countr}', there are many who will not rest satisfied 

 to say that the change in our climatic conditions and that dread 

 disease, the 3'ellows, have made it almost impossible for us to 

 grow them here, but will strive with science, skill, and energy, to 

 produce this most luscious of fruits once more on the hills of old New 

 England ; and, while I am not here to boast of my successes, or 

 to ask for sympathy in my hours of almost despair in peach cul- 

 ture, yet possibly the story of peach culture at Elm Fruit Farm 

 may be as practical and instructive as anything I can say to 3'ou 

 at this time on this subject, practical experience usually being of 

 more interest than theory. 



We have alwaj's had some few peaches for famil}^ use planted 

 on various parts of the farm. Some gave fruit quite frequentl}', 

 others seldom, if ever ; some winter-killed, others died of yellows, 

 and still others from various causes, the longest-lived ones usually 

 being on the high and dry hills, so that by the time I was fifteen 

 years old I had learned to look for peaches on the trees that were 

 on high, dry ground on the poorer portions of the farm, even 

 when none were to be found on the trees growing in the heavier 

 and richer soil of the garden or richly cultivated fields near the 

 house, and the knowledge thus gained was put to practical use 

 when, some twelve years ago, we began planting orchards with 

 the hope of some day selling fruit in the market. 



