Selecting Peach Trees. 233 
are in dormant bud. Take no more trees from the nursery than can be 
planted in half a day. Plow a furrow on each side of the row, six inches 
from the trees, turning the soil from them, then two men with heavy spades 
or shovels, one on each side of the tree, can readily take it up without 
breaking many of the roots; and what are so broken should be smoothly 
trimmed with a sharp knife. Place the trees in a tub of water, near where 
they are to be planted, and take from it only a few ata time. Put them ina 
basket or box and cover with wet sack, that they may be kept moist until 
placed in the ground. 
On planting, place the bud one inch below the level of the ground, but 
do not cover it until after it has grown to the height of a few inches. The 
stock should be cut off at the bud with a thin, sharp knife, and not with 
shears, as is often done, as the latter method will sometimes split the tree, 
when it will take in moisture and not heal readily. 
Some growers do not cut back the young seedling tree 
until growth has started out well on the dormant bud. 
Rather more care is needed in handling dormant buds both 
in planting and in their young life in the orchard. Lookout 
must be kept for suckers and against injury in cultivation. Suc- 
cess with dormant buds is notable. In good hands they com- 
monly outgrow yearlings planted at the same time, and the 
percentage of loss from failure of the bud to start is very small. 
Ot course every bud should be examined before planting, to see 
that it has a healthy color. 
In the selection of peach trees for planting, a clean, healthy 
root only should be taken. During recent years there have 
been a good many young roots affected with knots or swellings 
from some obscure cause. Such trees should be burned. If 
planted, the knot sometimes grows to an enormous size and 
little or no top growth is made. 
PRUNING THE PEACH. 
As has been advised for other trees, the peach should be 
given a low head, developed as described in the chapter on prun- 
ing. In its after-treatment, it has been the universal experience 
that constant “heading in” is essential to the strength and health 
of the tree. This also has been considered in an earlier chapter. 
The peach is a pressing instance of the necessity of regular 
pruning, to renew and regulate the amount of bearing wood 
and to promote profitable longevity in the tree. Illustrations 
of the pertinence of these remarks are found in the practise of 
the most successful peach growers in all parts of the State. A 
few instances will be given:— 
The peach, fruiting only on wood of the previous year’s growth, bears 
fruit farther away from the body of the tree each year, and the small shoots 
of from one-eighth to three-sixteenths in diameter begin to decline when 
the fruit is removed. To have healthy growth, all of these small branches 
must be removed the first winter following their fruiting, when there is a 
greater tendency to form small new growths, which may fruit the following 
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