PROFESSOR J. J. MAPES'S ADDRESS. 609 



if the tree is not permitted to sink into the soil below its natural 

 depth, these difficulties will not occur, and the peach worm 

 will not be so apt to annoy it. During the first season, new 

 branches will put forth, fairly balanced on all sides of the tree. 

 The following spring these branches should be shortened in, 

 cutting next to a wood bud, and never next to a fruit bud,' re- 

 moving two-thirds of the new growth. This will cause the 

 new puttings-forth to be nearer the tree, and greater in num- 

 ber, so that, instead of a few straggling branches shading the 

 smaller ones and causing them to die out for want of air and 

 sun, you will have a number of branches of equal length with 

 each other, and of double thickness. Continue this practice 

 each year, and by the end of the third year you may have a 

 round-headed tree resembling the shape of a horse-chestnut tree, 

 and bearing its fruit on branches incapable of being bent by 

 its weight, and which will continue to bear fruit for many 

 years, provided the soil be annually disturbed as with other 

 exotics. The peach tree will not bear fine fruit without con- 

 tinued cultivation. Original trees, raised from the pit, and 

 accidentally producing good kinds, last longer than those which 

 are budded, simply because they are not placed too deeply in 

 the ground. Nature plants the pits correctly when they fall 

 from the tree, and therefore the cotyledons are not covered up 

 as with imperfectly transplanted trees for the particular accom- 

 modation of the peach worm. How often do we find peach 

 trees near stable windows, where the ends of the limbs are 

 bitten off by horses or cattle, bearing superior fruit ; and how 

 often do we find similar instances of fruit-bearing with peach 

 trees, a large proportion of which has been removed by acci- 

 dent, thus in part taking place of the shortening-in process we 

 have recommended. 



The treatment recommended for the peach, is equally ap- 

 plicable to the nectarine and apricot, but should never be ap- 

 pealed to for other fruits. 



Every practical farmer is aware of the necessity of a proper 

 succession of crops, and this arises from the fact that plants 

 receive from the soil whatever they find in solution. The 

 aqueous portions so received may contain the proper pabulum 

 for the creation of the new organism, and in addition thereto 

 certain materials which are not required by, and are offensive 

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