Ripening by Fire-Heat. 311 



cial heat is commenced about the first of the year, and ripe fruit of 

 Hale's Early (the earliest sort raised) obtained in less than five 

 months. The heat should be sufficient to keep the temperature 

 some degrees above freezing during the night, and up to sixty or 

 seventy in the daytime. As warm weather advances but little fire- 

 heat is required, and after the first of May usually none at all the 

 heat of the sun being sufficient to maintain the necessary warmth. 

 When the thermometer is eighty out-of-doors, it will be ninety or 

 upwards in the peach-house when the ventilators are kept open. 

 The danger feared from a high temperature is of the dropping of the 

 fruit, which is only prevented by regular and copious watering. 

 Each tree, when in full leaf and during the growth of the fruit, 

 requires about one gallon of water each twenty-four hours. When 

 the fruit is within about five days of full maturity, the trees are placed 

 out-of-doors on the south side of the house, where the exposure and 

 open air complete the process, and give a fine flavor to the fruit, 

 preventing that insipidity existing in peaches ripened wholly under 

 glass. If they are placed out much sooner than this period, the 

 exposure causes the curl of the leaf, and the fruit neither attains 

 full size nor good quality indeed, it is often quite worthless. 

 About two dozen from each tree is a sufficient number, where full 

 size and the best flavor are desired, although more than double this 

 number are often obtained. The trees continue in bearing a few 

 years and are then replaced by young ones. 



WINTER PROTECTION FOR THE TREES. 



In the chapter on the Situation of Orchards, directions were given 

 for the selection of sites for peach-orchards, to secure them against 

 the destruction of the crop by the cold of winter. There are large 

 districts throughout the more northern States where a selection of 

 this kind cannot be made, and where the frequent and general fail- 

 ure of the crop indicates the necessity of some artificial protection. 

 Various experiments for this purpose have been made, among which 

 the following have so far proved most successful. 



i. Training the young trees very low or near the ground, so that 

 the branches may be bent down in winter, and covered with straw, 

 corn-stalks, or, still better, with forest leaves or evergreen boughs, 

 It is important that the branches should be laid upon the earth, 

 that they may receive warmth from below, and the covering should 

 be thick enough to exclude the cold air. Attempts to protect the 

 fruit buds by encasing them in non-conducting substances, without 



