PROPAGATION OF TREES AND PLANTS 195 



the shells they should be kept covered with moist sand 

 or soil until ready for planting. 



They are planted in rows from four to five feet 

 apart and about two inches in the row, covering with 

 fine soil from one to two inches deep, according to the 

 character of the soil. Under proper conditions of cul- 

 tivation and in good soil the seedlings should be from 

 eighteen to twenty-four inches high by the last of 

 August, when they are to be budded. If larger than 

 this they are more difficult to bud, and will make a tree 

 the following season too large for the best results in 

 planting in the orchard. The peach is the most easily 

 budded of any of the fruit trees, but care must be taken 

 not to put in fruit buds. Buds should be taken from 

 the best and most fruitful trees and not from the nursery 

 rows, though the latter will be more certain to grow, 

 and fewer blossom buds be obtained. 



The process of budding is the same as for the apple. 

 As the peach seedlings grow very rapidly about the 

 time of budding, a closer watch must be kept that the 

 bands do not cut into the stocks so as to cause them 

 to break off in the wind. The stocks are cut off, as seen 

 in Figure 43, the following spring, and the buds start 

 into rapid growth, requiring early attention that the 

 inserted bud is not injured by other buds that start 

 about it. The care required the first season is to see 

 that only one leader grows, but all laterals are allowed 

 to grow, and at the end of the first year's growth the 

 tree is ready for planting in the orchard. Peach trees 

 are graded according to size into No. 1 and No. 2, or 

 according to hight, as five to seven feet, three and one- 

 half to five feet, and three to four and one-half feet. 

 The trees most planted are those of medium or second 

 sizes, for the reason that these have more dormant buds 

 on the main stem than the larger trees, and conse- 

 quently more stocky heads can be formed from them. 



