94 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



MARcn, 191* 



The peach is the one fruit for the amateur's garden. It bears good crops in three or four years' time 



north of this the same varieties will ripen 

 three or four weeks later, and two to three 

 degrees south of this they will ripen a 

 month earlier. You probably have a 

 preference for either yellow or white 

 fleshed sorts, or you may want them both, 

 and you should select one or two canning 

 varieties. Choose from the list one variety 

 of the type of peach you like from each 

 one of the four ripening classes, and plant 

 one tree of each sort you pick. In your 

 home garden it is nicer to have several 

 different varieties than all one sort. 



The table gives the color of the flesh. 

 The color of the skin of nearly all peaches 

 corresponds with that of the flesh, except 

 for the universal red blush of greater or 

 lesser extent and brilliancy. The coloring 

 is less important than the flavor and tex- 

 ture for home growing purposes. Three 

 divisions of the varieties are enough with 

 reference to altitude. Peaches may be at 

 home on low-land and not on the mountain, 

 or in mountain sections and not under 

 low-land conditions. Or they may suc- 

 ceed anywhere. With reference to latitude, 

 the question is mostly one of hardiness, 

 and the classification "north," given some 

 varieties means that they resist severe 

 winters successfully. The varieties so 

 designated, with the exception of those 

 named in a preceding paragraph, succeed 

 in the South just as well. 



When you come to buy your trees re- 

 member that none but one-year trees will 

 do. Two-year peach trees are a delusion 

 and a snare. As soon as your trees are 

 planted, cut them off fifteen or eighteen 

 inches from the ground. If the sacrifice 

 of big tops and fine limbs seems to be a 

 shame to you, be assured that this is the 

 only way of developing a tree that will 

 yield properly, and that you can prune 

 and spray and pick from with satisfaction. 



Aside from the requirement of one-year 

 trees cut to about fifteen inches from the 



ground, planting peach trees is just like 

 planting other trees. Prune off damaged 

 roots with a slanting cut face down, and 

 spread out the root system in a natural 

 circle in a big hole. Pack the dirt about 

 the roots just as tightly as you can with 

 your feet or a heavy maul. The use of 

 water to help settle the ground about the 

 roots is a good practice, but not a require- 

 ment. If you first loosen the ground all 

 round the spot with dynamite or by digging 

 and then pack it solidly, growth will be 

 almost certain. But don't use dynamite 

 in wet ground. Peach trees may be set as 

 late as the middle of May. 



Why Grass is Injurious to 

 Orchards 



By Maud DeWitt Pearl, Maine 



ANY farmer permitting an orchard 

 /% to become grassed knows that, he 

 / \ is doing so to the detriment 

 of his trees. Mr. Pick- 

 ering, the Director of the 

 famous Woburn experi 

 mental fruit farm in 

 England, in an exten- 

 sive series of in- 

 vestigations, has 

 been seeking an 

 explanation of 

 the differences 

 between tilled 

 soil and grassed 

 soil for orchard- 

 ing. 



In order to test 

 the theory that 



grass roots absorb moisture which 

 would otherwise be absorbed by the 

 roots of the trees, water was supplied to 

 trees grown in grassed soil by means of 

 underground pipes, yet the trees showed 

 no improvement in their condition. Fur- 



thermore, the fact that trees do better 

 in tilled soil during dry years than trees 

 grown in grassed soil during wet years 

 shows that the theory that grass roots rob 

 the soil of the moisture necessary for the 

 best growth of the trees is untenable. 

 Similarly it was shown that grass roots 

 do not withdraw plant food from the soil. 

 Grass roots were hindered from reaching 

 the tree roots by placing a layer of fine 

 gauze four inches from the surface and 

 then supplying plant food from below, yet 

 there was no change; neither lack of aera- 

 tion nor difference in temperature offered 

 a solution to the problem. 



The conclusion that the investigator 

 finally reached was this: that in grassed 

 soil there is formed a poisonous substance, 

 the source of which is undetermined, but 

 which acts as a toxin to the tree roots. 

 Grass roots were separated from tree roots 

 by means of perforated trays. As was to 

 be expected the trees showed the usual 

 poor condition. The trays were then 

 removed and the drainage from these added 

 to the soil. Still the trees responded un- 

 favorably. But the opposite condition 

 prevailed if the drainage was first exposed 

 to the air so that oxidization occurred. 

 The trees not only showed a healthy con- 

 dition but also an improvement over those 

 grown in tilled soil. The same result is 

 obtained when grass is removed from an 

 orchard. At first the soil produces sickly 

 trees, but if exposed to the air for a period 

 of time it is then more fertile than soil 

 which has been tilled for some time. 

 Grassed soils are in many respects an- 

 alogous to soils that have been heated or 

 treated with antiseptics. There occurs 

 an increase in the soluble organic matter 

 and at the same time a toxic substance is 

 formed. As aeration takes place both the 

 organic matter and the toxin diminish in 

 quantity but the latter more rapidly than 

 the former so that when the poisonous sub- 

 stance has entirely disappeared the soil is 

 rendered more productive by the presence 

 of the organic material than untreated soil. 



Is it ripe? Don't "try" a peach in any other way and 

 this only gently. If it gives at the stalk end it is ripe 



