62 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ploughed out for trees to be set fifteen feet apart each way ; then 

 one pound of bone was sprinkled in the bottom of each hole 

 before planting the trees. These had been propagated from 

 Tennessee natural pits — some of them from trees more than sixty 

 years of age as I was told while there and could well believe on 

 examination, and budded from healthy matured trees. Medium- 

 sized trees were selected, from one-half to five-eighths of an inch 

 in diameter and about four feet high — such trees as you can get all 

 the roots of in digging from the nursery row. A sharp pruning 

 knife was used to give a smooth cut to an}' roots that might have 

 been bruised in digging ; all side branches were cut off and then 

 the main stem two and one-half feet up. These were planted in 

 the ground about one inch deeper than they, grew in the nursery 

 row, and in May the borer wash, of which I will speak later, was 

 applied. As soon as growth was well started, with a buckskin 

 glove on one hand, we went along and rubbed off all sprouts 

 except five or six nearest the top ; tlieu, after selecting three, or 

 at the most, four, for leading branches, we rubbed off the rest. 

 Thus the trees were started headed low, with the limbs just where 

 we wanted them. The peaches were given the whole ground, 

 except on a few acres, and had good clean culture by an Acme 

 harrow and an occasional hand hoeing about the bod}' of the trees. 

 In October, a search was made for any borers that might be in the 

 trees and what few there were were dug out and all the trees 

 were banked up with earth a foot or more to keep away mice and 

 rabbits and to protect them from being swa3-ed about by the 

 winter winds. 



Early the following spring all the trees were carefully trimmed 

 by shortening in the new growth one-half and by thinning out 

 whatever branches gave indications of being likely to be in the 

 way later. On the poorer portions of the field bone and potash 

 were applied as at the time of planting, but on the 

 richer sections onl}' half as much of the bone was applied. 

 The fields were ploughed from four to live inches in depth. 

 In Ma}', the banking was taken awtxy from the trees and the 

 borer wash applied. Thorough and frequent cultivation was 

 given all through the summer up to about the middle of August, 

 after which we gave no cultivation. In October borers were 

 sought for, but only a few were found where the wash had been 

 thoroughly applied. The. trees were again banked as in the fall 

 before. 



