130 



SUCCESSFUL FARMING 



years, the applications may need to be varied. The formulas given are 

 per acre: 



1. 250 pounds high-grade sulphate of potash. 

 400-600 pounds basic slag. 



Nitrate of soda as needed to produce proper growth Usually 100-200 pounds 

 per acre. 



2. 100 pounds nitrate of soda. 

 100 pounds dried blood. 

 350 pounds slag. 



100-200 pounds high-grade sulphate of potash. 



3. 25- 50 pounds dried blood. 

 40- 80 pounds tankage: 

 90-180 pounds bone meal. 



130-260 pounds basic slag. 

 80-160 pounds high-grade sulphate of potash. 



This is a more complicated formula than the others, but is used by a very 



successful grower. 



Pruning. The most intelligent pruning of any 

 kind of fruit tree requires that one should understand 

 thoroughly the manner in which the fruit is borne by 

 that tree. This is perhaps more emphatically true of 

 the peach than of any other fruit, but is certainly a safe 

 general principle. We will therefore consider this point 

 first. 



The peach bears only on last season's wood, the 

 buds occurring normally in clusters of three on such 

 shoots, the center one being a leaf bud and the two out- 

 side ones fruit buds. Shoots of medium size give the 

 best results. If, for any reason, a peach tree makes a 

 very rank growth it will be found that fewer fruit buds 

 are produced on such wood and they are apt to be less 

 hardy. In seasons when a large part of the fruit buds 

 are killed by severe cold it almost always happens that 

 the few buds which come through safely are on the 

 smaller branches. The pruning of the peach, therefore, 

 ought, first of all, to aim at keeping up a supply of new 

 wood, and, except when one is trying to grow a new 

 top on the tree, it should never be so severe as to give 

 a very rank growth. 



The following will be found a fairly satisfactory out- 

 line for the pruning of a bearing peach tree: 



1. Do not allow the pruning of the tree as a whole 

 to be severe enough to start a very strong wood growth. 



2. Take out altogether any very high and very 

 strong leaders. This is necessary because the fruiting 

 wood tends to get very high if these leaders are allowed 

 to remain. Less rank leaders may be headed back less 

 severly or allowed to remain entirely, 



PEACH TWIG, SHOW- 

 ING ARRANGEMENT 

 OF LEAF AND BLOS- 

 SOM BUDS. 



