8o 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



Mr. Hale believes that he has, to some extent, avoided this danger by his methods 

 of pruning. He prunes annually, shortening in the first year about two-thirds 

 of the young growth, aiming to produce trees with low spreading tops, and with 

 open heads, but, after they have reached the bearing age, he trims for fruit with- 

 out so much regard to the symmetry of the tree. He does this work in the 

 spring of the year, just as the fruit buds begin to swell, because at this time he 

 can discern the live buds, and the great point is to so prune as to avoid cutting 

 them off. 



He believes in thinning peaches. He sets boys and men at work taking 

 off the surplus, leaving no peaches nearer together than six inches; he frequently 

 removes one-half the fruit. In this way he believes that he gets just as many 

 baskets of peaches, and much larger samples ; for instance, instead of two 

 hundred small peaches in baskets, he gets them of such a size that from sixty to 

 one hundred fill a basket. The trees in this way are less exhausted, it being a 

 well-acknowledged fact that the production of seeds exhausts the tree of its 

 strength more than the production of fruit. 



In cultivating his peach orchard his method is to plough shallow in early 

 spring, and keep the orchard cultivated until the first of August, after which he 

 ceases this work in order to allow the wood to mature well before the cold 

 weather. 



In harvesting his peaches, he does not believe in gathering them green, 

 before they have attained their full color and excellence of flavor. As fast as 



they are picked from the trees they are taken 

 to the packing-house, and Mr. Hale attaches 

 great importance to the proper method of doing 

 this work. Indeed, he attributes his success 

 largely to his honest methods of packing his 

 fruit. He makes three classes of his fruit, and 

 labels them with tags of three colors, red for 

 extras, white for first-class, and blue for seconds. 

 In the extras, peaches are rejected measuring 

 less than 2^ inches; in first quality, those 

 measuring less than 2 inches ; while the third 

 quality are marketable peaches, below the latter 

 size. The work is done by young ladies of 

 taste, whom he pays liberally. The instruc- 

 tions are, that no better fruit is to be put on 

 the top of the basket than may be found in the 

 bottom, and this is guaranteed to all buyers. 

 When the crop is ready for sale he visits the leading fruit merchants of the various 

 cities of his State, especially those who cater to a fancy trade, he explains the 

 system upon which his peaches are graded, that they are to be sold at a price 



Fig. oil.— J. H. Hale. 

 A typical Connecticut Yankee. 



