330 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JULT 



The use of the trowel and dibble in setting out 

 plants, and doing various kinds of garden work 

 is obvious to all. 



By combining the three in one the purchaser 

 has an instrument costing less than three separ- 

 ate implements and also much more convenient." 



For sale by Parker, White & Gannett, 

 Blackstone Street, Boston. 



For the New England Farmer. 



OULTUBE OF THE PEACH. 



Mr. Editor : — As it may not be uninterest- 

 ing to some of your readers, I have herein set 

 forth an account of my experience in the cultm-e 

 of the peach. In the year 1849, 1 gathered some 

 peach-stones of the wildest, and I might say, the 

 poorest I could find. I placed them in a box, 

 first a layer of earth, then a layer of peach-stones, 

 until I filled the box ; I think there might have 

 been three layers of peach-stones. They were 

 left out of doors until the frost had acted upon 

 them, and about the first of January they were 

 placed in the cellar. Early in the spring they 

 were removed to a warm situation, where the sun 

 could reach them most of the day, and by the 

 time I could prepare my ground, they had most- 

 ly started ; some grown from six to ten inches 

 high. By removing one end of the box they 

 were easily transplanted into rows where they 

 grew to a good size for budding ; which was done 

 early in September. Of five or six hundred trees, 

 only one hundred and seventy took well ; these 

 were set out in the spring of 1850, and in 1851 I 

 planted more in the same manner, with similar 

 result, until I obtained four hundred and fifty 

 good trees budded with twenty-three varieties : 

 there remained over one thousand inferior trees, 

 on many of which the buds did not take ; these 

 ■were thrown away. The four hundred and fifty 

 trees were set out in rows fourteen feet apart each 

 way. When one year old from the bud, the top 

 was cut in close to the main stock ; apple trees 

 were set every twenty- eight feet each way. The 

 ground occupied is less than three acres. I have 

 continued to work the land, planting corn, pota- 

 toes, beans, squashes, kc, commencing with three 

 rows between the trees, each way, and as the 

 trees grew, two rows, then one, always making a 

 tree come in a hill, plowing either way. 



Of peaches, the result has been, that in 1853 I 

 had a few, I forget how many, sold to the amount 

 of fifty dollars ; in 1854, had one hundred and 

 fifty bushels, sold to the amount of two hundred 

 and fifty dollars ; in 1855 I did not have one 

 peck ; in 1856, had about eighty bushels, sold to 

 the amount of three hundred and fifty dollars ; 

 in 1857 had one hundred and thirty-five bushels, 

 sold to the amount of four hundred and fifty-four 

 dollars. The trees are mostly in a healthy con- 

 dition, in full blossom, with a prospect of a much 

 larger crop than ever before. My situation is 

 sheltered from the bleak winds ; there is a large 

 hill on the north-east and also on the north-west, 

 and I think it must be owing to my location that 

 I have had quite a crop of peaches, when there 

 were hardly any in this country, as was the case 

 in 1856. As respects the varieties, there is a 

 marked difi"erence in their hardiness, also the 



same kinds will not always be as good, owing, 1 

 think, mostly to the season. I have thirty rath- 

 er small-sized trees of the Malta, which in 1856 

 produced twenty bushels ; they sold readily for 

 one hundred dollars, were large, high-colored, 

 and excellent. Last year the trees were suffered 

 to bear too full, consequently the fruit was small 

 and inferior. Most of my fruit has been sold to 

 dealers to sell again. I have many trees of a 

 firm, high-colored peach ; excellent for the mar- 

 ket; we call them the "Jenks Rareripe," — it has 

 proved hardy. Last year many of them rotted 

 on the trees, I think by reason of there being too 

 much water in the ground, as several other kinds 

 were aff'ected in the same way. "Crawford's Ear- 

 ly" are as handsome as any that I have cultiva- 

 ted, but I think they are rather tender, and very 

 sensitive to our winters. The large white and 

 yellow rareripe, "Coolidge's Favorite," the old 

 large red rareripe, have each proved hardy. Al- 

 though I adopted the heading in, from the first, 

 and continued it for several years, yet some kinds, 

 such as the Early York, Gross Mignonne, Royal 

 George, &c., would soar aloft, the lower limbs 

 dying out. I have thought my trees were more 

 hardy than some other orchards, by reason of 

 the stocks being selected from seed of the native, 

 unbudded fruit. I have kept out all dead wood, 

 trimming in the autumn, removing sometimes 

 large limbs that interfered with my apple trees ; 

 where they -were severed from the trunk would 

 become hard and dry before spring, therefore 

 send out no gum. 



In the first starting of my peach orchard, the 

 grubs took to them so that 1 began to think they 

 would destroy them entirely. I took air-slaked 

 lime, removed the earth from near the trunk of 

 the trees, and applied about two quarts to each 

 tree, pressing it up close to the tree ; this was 

 done in June, for two or three years, and it proved 

 effectual. Now it is evident we can have a crop 

 of peaches when the mercury fulls twenty below 

 zero ; but the reason, to my mind, is that the 

 wood has well ripened the previous autumn, the 

 blossom buds never swelling or starting until 

 spring. It often happens that we have a warm 

 spell of weather in November, sometimes later, 

 that starts the blossom buds, after which, extreme 

 cold, say a few degrees below zero, Avill be death 

 to them. The soil on which my orchard stands 

 is mostly warm, dry soil, with a hard, gravelly 

 sub-soil underlying it, on which the apple flour- 

 ishes finely, and its nature is to stand a drought 

 extremely well. A. G. Bradstreet. 



Locust Glai, Danvers, May 20, 1858. 



Remarks. — Mr. Bradstreet, will please ac- 

 cept our thanks for this excellent article upon 

 the culture of the peach. We have no doubt it 

 will be the indirect means of supplying many fam- 

 ilies with a supply of that delicious and whole- 

 some fruit. 



Coal. — Ere we wrap up this carboniferous in- 

 tegument of the landscape, let us mark to how 

 small a coal-field England has for so many years, 

 owed its flourishing trade. Its area, as I have 

 already had occasion to remark, scarcely equals 

 that of one of our largest Scottish lakes, and yet 

 how many thousand steam engines has it set in 



