THE GENESEE FARMER. 



31 



All trees that have been any way neglected should at 

 ce be gone over. The center of the trees should be 

 ;11 cleared oat, and all shoots when crowded should be 

 i\\ thinned. This done, the shoots should be carefully 

 ur-pruned, leaving the best buds. The result' will be 

 ixt year a crop of fruit much superior in size and quan- 

 ;y to any that has been produced for years. 



JLTUEE OF THE PEACH IN THE MIDDLE STATES. 



The editor of the Baltimore Sural Register, who has 

 iid considerable experience in the cultivation of peach 

 ees, remarks that orchards in the Middle States have 

 )t borne good crops of late years, and that many or- 

 lards in locations once famous for the size and qualities 

 " the peaches grown there have either died out or become 

 orthless. 



It is not always easy to accouut for the causes that have 

 reduced this state of things, for they necessarily vary 

 1 many instances, and the conditions under which the 

 rchards were cultivated or neglected are not usually 

 nown. Late spring frosts also, and intervals of warm 

 eather too early in the season have not unfrequently led 

 ) the loss of this delicious fruit, and he has also observed 

 lat many of the newer peach orchards have been planted 

 1 situations and on soils where experience has shown 

 iat peaches will not flourish. The failure of a crop 

 irough unseasonable weather can not, of course, be al- 

 ways prevented, although there are occasions when, as in 

 he case of late spring frosts, the probability of a fair 

 eturn of fruit may be secured by resorting to the same 

 imple means which were adopted for that purpose by 

 ome of the older and more successful peach-growers. 



The peach flourishes best in a light, loose soil, rather 

 ;andy than otherwise, and, as a general rule, on dry up- 

 ands better than on the slopes of hills, inclined to valleys, 

 hrough which small streams of water flow, and through 

 vhich cold currents of air are constantly sweeping— such 

 /■alleys, we mean, as are subject to have their vegetation 

 .rvjured by those early and late frosts which do not reach 

 ;he upland plateaus. Of course, where large bodies of 

 water modify the temperature, as on the eastern and 

 western shores of Maryland, the level sandy soils of such 

 districts will grow the peach to perfection, and without 

 much hazard. Elsewhere a sandy or gravelly soil, well 

 elevated above surrounding valleys, and therefore having 

 a dry atmosphere, is the best fitted for the culture of the 

 peach. The orchard should, however, be protected from 

 the northwestern winds either by a higher range of hills 

 or by a belt of woodland. If late frosts are to be appre- 

 hended, heaps of brush and weeds should be formed on 

 the windward side, and a smothering fire made so as to 

 let the smoke drift among the trees during the night. 

 During high winds this precaution is not necessary, as it is 

 only during moderately calm nights that the frost is apt to 

 injure the young fruit. No crops should ever be grown in a 

 peach orchard except such as are subject to the hoe— in 

 other words, none but root crops and corn. These may 

 occasionally be grown, but it is far better to plow up the 

 peach orchard every fall, let it lay rough through the 

 winter, and cultivate it throughout the following season 

 without growing any crop on it whatever. If, in additiou 

 to these simple rules, the trees are judiciously pruned ; 



are worked annually about their roots, when half a peck 

 of wood ashes should be spread around the stem of each 

 tree, and if they are also carefully freed of the peach 

 worm by following it into its recesses under the bark at 

 the base of the tree, we should hear much less frequently 

 of the failure of the crop. 



SCRUBBING AND WASHING TREES. 



The Germantoion Telegraph thinks early winter the 

 best time for scraping and washing the trunks of trees. 



It is well known to all observing fruit growers that the 

 loose bark of trees is the winter quarters of myriads of 

 insects, where they securely remain until the ensuing 

 spring, when the warm, genial weather warrants them to 

 quit their cozy homes and begin their destructive opera- 

 tions for the season. We ha^e found a narrow saw, 

 rather fine toothed, to be an excellent tool in rasping off 

 the superfluous bark. It accomplishes it more uniformly 

 than a hoe, trowel, or other scraper ; a trowel, or a short 

 handled hoe, however, is very good, when the other may 

 not be possessed. After the bark is removed, the trunks 

 should be washed thoroughly with a preparation of 

 whale-oil soap and water, say in the proportion of a 

 pound of the soap to four gallons of water. It can be 

 applied to large trees with a hickory broom or a stiff 

 whitewash brush, and to small trees, especially dwarfs, 

 with the hand scrub-brush. Sickly trees, which can at 

 this season be easily detected by being covered with a 

 species of fungi, or perhaps more properly a peculiar in- 

 sectiverous deposit, should be scrubbed so as to com- 

 pletely remove this. The mixture will of itself benefit 

 the tree, while the removal from the stem of all extrane- 

 ous and injurious substances, will give to it new health 

 and vigor the ensuing season— in some instances to a sur- 

 prising extent. When whale-oil soap is not obtainable, 

 lye may be used, but it should not be very strong. 



Dry Clat as Good as Sulphur tor Mildew on the 

 Grape.— P. Lazaris, of Athens, gives the results of several 

 years' experiments which he has made with various sub- 

 stances for arresting the oidium or mildew on the grape. 

 He thinks any dried and pulverized substance which does 

 not injure the fruit or foliage of the vine will answer 

 the purpose. He prefers dried clay. It should be free 

 from sand or gravel, dried in the sun for a few hours, 

 and then pulverized very finely and sifted, and then ap- 

 plied the same way as sulphur. 



Sulphur for Grape Mildew in France:— "M. le doc 

 teur Guyot" has received from the Minister of Agricul- 

 ture a commission to examine into the state of vineyards 

 in France, and in consequence of his report, 500 francs 

 have been given by the Government to be expended in the 

 purchase ot sulphur, which is to be given to. the vine-grow- 

 ers who can not afford to procure it for themselves. This 

 shows the importance attached to the use of sulphur in 

 arresting mildew on grape-vines. 



Peaches in Minnesota.— The Minnesota Farmer and 

 Gardener says : " The peaches grown about Saint Paul 

 are all protected in the winter by training the branches 

 near the ground and covering in the fall. 



