PEACH GROWING. 



phosphoric acid, and not nitrogen, are 

 the true fertilizers for peaches. Ashes, 

 muriate of potash and bone fertilizers 

 make productive trees. Tillage with 

 green crops, to turn under at the end of 

 the season, will furnish sufficient nitro- 

 gen generally, and even then it is possi- 

 ble to plow under too much crimson 

 clover. Nitrogen, it is true, lies at the 

 foundation of succ«&fFui agriculture, but 

 its greatest ben4|ftt- are to be had from 

 annual crops in the fanA and garden. 

 It can also^Tpe, applied advantageously 

 to newly set* fruit plants, but it can be 

 easily used to excess. 



Pruning. — The difference of opinion 

 as to the proper methods of pruning 

 turn on three practices: (t) short 

 trunks with rapidly ascending branches ; 

 {2) high trunks with more horizontal 

 branches; and (3) shortening in or 

 heading back the annual growth. Each 

 of these methods has distinct advan- 

 tages for different cases. The nature of 

 the soil is the controlling factor in de- 

 ciding which is preferable. The natural 

 method of pruning trees on a sandy 

 soil is to allow the tree to spread at will 

 into a vase form, with no heading in — 



that is, to let the trees have short trunks 



# 



and forking branches. The low trunk 

 allows an open top, where the peaches 

 color better. High- topped trees are 

 more easily tilled, and it is quite as 

 easy to pick their fruit. It is the better 

 method on rich land, for it keeps the 

 tree within bounds. Heading in is 

 usually done in winter, and one-third to 

 a half of the annual, growth is removed. 



This heading in always makes a thick- 

 topped tree. 



Thinning Fruit. — No two peaches 

 should be allowed to develop nearer 

 than five inches apart. No work of the 

 orchard pays better than thinning the 

 fruit either in the price which the re- 

 maining produce brings or in the energy 

 which is saved to the tree. When 

 regularly thinned the tree bears every 

 year unless injured by frost. The fruit 

 must be picked sooner or later, and the 

 work is more easily done in June than 

 September, so that no labor is lost. 

 The thinning should be delayed until 

 the fruit is the size of the end of a man's 

 thumb, and by this time the "Jtme 

 drop " has occurred, and the fruit can 

 readily be seen. \ 



Marketing. — But if growers are negli- 

 gent in thinning, they are positively 

 careless in marketing, and everybody 

 knows that nicely packed fruit brings 

 good prices wholly independent of its 

 quality. Hand boxes containing sixty 

 wrapped California peaches have sold 

 from $2 to $4, although of inferior 

 quality when they reached our market, 

 and alongside of them our own peaches, 

 of better flavor, have sold for twenty-five 

 cents to seventy-five cents when care- 

 lessly dumped into a half-bushel basket. 

 The main fault in handling peaches are 

 too large packages, lack of grading and 

 selection, lack of covers to the basket, 

 which allows the fruit to be crushed, 

 when it will have a disagreeable and for- 

 bidding look, and cannot command a 

 fair price. — Garden and Forest. 



