HOME PROPAGATION OF PEACH TREES 



1539 



Most peach growers will find it strictly 

 to their advantage to buy their trees 

 from some reliable nurseryman. In say- 

 ing this, however, we have given the 

 most important speciiications. If one 

 deals with a thoroughly reliable nursery- 

 man — and this includes a great majority 

 of the firms engaged in the business — 

 most otiier matters may be referred to 

 the judgment and advice of the man who 

 sells the trees. 



The "Home >'urser.vm."iir' 



There is a strong prejudice existing 

 among peach growers in many parts of 

 the country favoring locally grown nur- 

 sery trees. This prejudice is particu- 

 larly strong in the Northern states. It 

 is doubtful whether it has any founda- 

 tion whatever. Experience seems to show 

 conclusively that the best trees will make 

 good growth regardless of where they 

 spent their infancy. Conditions in the 

 nursery trade are such at the present 

 time that a large majority of all peach 

 trees are grown in the Southern and 

 South-Central states. These are distrib- 

 uted to all parts of the country, and very 

 often the buyer who supposes he is get- 

 ting Northern-grown trees simply be- 

 cause his bill is made out on a Northern 

 letterhead is really planting stock which 

 grew in Alabama. The only advantage of 

 buying trees from a local nursery is 

 gained by minimizing the possibilities of 

 injury in transit. A good many trees 

 are carelessly packed and, when delayed 

 during long freight shipments, dry out 

 and are thereby seriously damaged. This 

 danger is, of course, reduced by buying 

 trees near home. There is, moreover, 

 some satisfaction in dealing with a nurs- 

 eryman who is one's own acquaintance, 

 particularly if it so happens that the nurs- 

 eryman is an old and trusted neighbor. 

 These considerations need not be over- 

 looked, but at the same time it is not 

 necessary to maintain that such home- 

 grown trees are intrinsically superior to 

 those grown a thousand miles farther 

 north or south or east or west. 



Year-Old Trees Desirable 



Peach trees are planted when they are 

 one year old. They are usually dug in 



the nurseries in the fall, sorted, graded, 

 put into bundles and heeled in or placed 

 in cold storage. Sometimes they are left 

 standing in the nurseries and are dug 

 early the following spring immediately 

 before transplanting. In any case the 

 important point is to see that they come 

 through the winter in good condition. If 

 they are frozen while standing in the 

 nursery rows, or if they dry out in the 

 trenches or in the storage house, they 

 will come to the planter with distinct 

 evidences of these injuries, usually in the 

 form of blackened bark. Sometimes the 

 bark is dead and will slip off the tree 

 when pinched by the fingers. All storage 

 damages of this sort are serious, and 

 trees of this kind should be refused. 



A few growers still prefer a two-year- 

 old peach tree, but in most cases it is 

 safe to say that such preference indicates 

 a distinct ignorance of the business. It 

 is the opinion of nearly all fruit growers 

 that any peach tree more than one year 

 old is entirely worthless for planting. 

 The June buds are here included as one- 

 year-old trees, but as a matter of fact 

 they are only half a year old. 



Prnning the Pe.ich 



Experiments conducted by J. C. Whit- 

 ten, of the Missouri Experiment Station, 

 to determine the best method of pruning 

 peach trees, have yielded results which 

 may be summarized as follows: 



1. Under normal conditions, when 

 peach trees have passed the winter safe- 

 ly and promise to produce a crop of fruit, 

 they should be pruned each winter by cut- 

 ting back the main limbs, so as to leave 

 one-half to two-thirds of the new growth 

 which contains the fruit buds. 



2. When the fruit buds have been win- 

 ter-killed the opportunity may be seized 

 to cut back the main limbs more severe- 

 ly, thus securing more compact trees and 

 avoiding the formation of long, straggling 

 limbs which the trees have a tendency 

 to form if they are not cut back. 



3. The amount of cutting back depends 

 upon the extent to which the trees have 

 been injured. 



4. If the fruit buds only have been 

 killed and the wood of the tree is unin- 



