70 Culture of the Peach in the open Air. 



Thin out the bearing wood to about 6 in. apart, and occasionally 

 cut out some of the intervening small branches where any thing 

 like confusion exists, and shorten back every bearing shoot at a 

 leaf bud, one half or two thirds, according to its strength; and 

 any branches affected with decay or gumming should be re- 

 moved, and the tree regulated accordingly. In pruning, always 

 cut behind the bud and about a quarter of an inch above it. 



I have always until lately entertained the strongest aversion 

 from all kinds of washes, except clean water, but have been com- 

 pelled by adverse visitations to have recourse to something besides 

 water. The summer of 1838 will long be remembered by me, 

 as a season when peach trees suffered greater injury from aphi- 

 des, than in all others put together during my remembrance. No 

 sooner did the leaves make an effort to develope themselves in 

 the spring, and throughout the whole summer, than they were 

 attacked and utterly destroyed. I applied in their turn pure 

 water, lime water, tobacco water, soapy water, and powderings 

 of sulphur, but all my efforts to subdue them proved utterly 

 unavailing. The attention the trees received during the entire 

 season was beyond all precedent, and at the close of the autumn 

 I had the mortification of witnessing all my assiduity and appli- 

 cation totally frustrated. From the high condition in which the 

 roots were, and the fruitless efforts made to produce wood, it 

 may be supposed the extravasated sap was oozing out in all 

 directions. The injury thus inflicted upon the most splendid 

 trees I ever beheld, was to me heart-rending; principal branches 

 were, in some instances, so seriously injured, as to render them 

 of no further use ; and two beautiful trees were damaged to such 

 an extent, that I dug them up, — with what feelings I will leave 

 my brethren of the blue apron to guess. In this state of des- 

 peration, I was compelled to try experiments, which were hap- 

 pily attended with the most satisfactory results. Lime water was 

 strongly recommended by some eminent horticulturists, as a 

 preventive to attacks of insects, and every disease to which 

 peach trees are subject, by keeping them regularly syringed with 

 it during the winter. This I found beneficial, but it bore no com- 

 parison to the following composition : — half a peck of unslaked 

 lime, a quarter of a peck of fresh soot, two pounds of soft or 

 black soap, and one pound of black sulphur (sulphur vivum). 

 The soap was dissolved in a vessel with boiling water, and the 

 other ingredients afterwards mixed with it, and just as much 

 water added as reduced the whole to a creamy consistency. As 

 soon as the pruning was finished, and previously to nailing, I 

 made one man regularly besmear every part of the tree, branch 

 by branch ; a fine day was selected for the purpose, which soon 

 dried the composition, showing any place that had escaped. In 

 order to secure to every part a coat of the mixture, I caused 



