140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



are killed. We pick vxp the brush on a wooden shod sled without 

 any pole in it. This brings the load near the ground and takes 

 very little room in turning. Just as soon as it does not freeze much 

 during the night we begin to spray with lime-sulfur. In other 

 words, we leave it just as long as possible and still get through 

 before the leaves get started too much. We then i^lant what trees 

 we have bought. This should be completed in April, but in favor- 

 able seasons if the work is not finished before the 10th or 12th. of 

 May the trees will grow all right. Make it a point, however, to get 

 the trees planted just as early as possible. 



Next comes the fertilizing of the older orchards and the harrow- 

 ing. This may or may not be the first harrowing. Just as soon as 

 the ground is dry enough we start the hairow, working one way one 

 week and crossways the next. Let neither haying nor hoeing interfere 

 with the harrowing, but keep at it every week from early spring 

 until the last of July or first of August. When the fertilizing is 

 done we dig the borers and hoe the young trees. In August and 

 the first part of Sei^tember we trim the young trees. 



If we are blessed with a crop we begin to harvest it toward the 

 last of July. Before harvesting begins Ave go through the orchard 

 every five or six rows tying back the limbs and raking out the 

 stone to make a road so as to get through with a one-horse wagon. 

 This wagon should be so rigged as to carry 40 or 50 baskets. Two 

 men can draw a great many more peaches in a day on a wagon of 

 this kind than on one that will carry 15 or so. At this time of all 

 times we want the work to count. The peaches are picked and set 

 beside these roads. Later, the men go through and pick up the 

 baskets and draw them to the packing shed, which is located in the 

 orchard. Plan to keep all the woi'k as near together as possible ; then 

 it is easier to look after, and if it is necessary to change part of 

 the help from one kind of work to another, there is not so much lost 

 time. For instance, if the packing shed is right in the orchard, and 

 one wishes to load a wagon of 200 or 300 or more baskets in a 

 hurry, he can call a gang of pickers and in a very few minutes the 

 load is ready to go. 



The peaches are picked by sight, not by touch, for the latter way 

 takes too much time. Divide the pickers into gangs and put a fore- 

 man in charge of each gang. The size of the gangs depends upon 

 the kind of men that make them up. If they are men of experi- 

 ence who will work anyway, then the foreman can take charge of 

 7 or 8, and pick himself. If, however, they are inexperienced 

 pickers and are men who are in the habit of working under a boss, 

 don't give the foreman more than 6 or 7, and tell him not to pick 

 a peach himself. Don't try to economize by giving the foreman 

 too many men ; better hire another foreman. Being near our market 

 we let the fruit ripen on the trees ; therefore some of it gets the best 



