AND ITS DISEASE. 43 



to conceal themselves for future depredations, and 

 no staking required to keep the tree upright. 



In the case of the peach, before planting, the top 

 should be divested of every limb, with a sharp 

 pruning knife, and a portion of the top or main 

 stem, for some four to six inches, leaving the tree 

 in appearance a mere stick above the surface. The 

 latent buds, at the base of the limbs cut off, will 

 break at the opening of the season, and soon show 

 a new and vigorous growth, which, by the fall of 

 the year, will be double the size of the old ones, 

 had they been lefc, as is generally practiced by 

 amateurs. As a rule, it is advisable, in setting 

 out an orchard or in planting a favorite tree, the 

 owner should superintend the planting or plant him- 

 self, unless he has some one to do it on whom he 

 can fully rely, knowing more or as much as he 

 knows himself. 



To give an example of faithless employees and 

 bad planting, some years ago I had been employed 

 in setting out some ten to fifteen acres of peach 

 trees, and on the last day of planting, towards 

 evening, I left my men to finish out with some fifty 

 or sixty trees still to be planted. This was on a 

 Saturday afternoon. The trees were put in, and 

 to all appearances, as I observed in a day or two 

 thereafter, they had been planted about as the 

 others had been, but in a short time they gave un- 

 doubted evidence that something was wrong with 

 them. There was but here and there one that 



