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PLANTING. 



In preparing the ground for planting, it should be thoroughly free from 

 stumps and roots and plowed and subsoiled to a depth of sixteen inches or 

 more, and no reasonable expense should be spared to have it perfectly 

 pulverized. Planting in equilateral triangles is preferable to squares, as 

 the ground is more completely occupied without the tops or roots of the 

 trees intermingling. Fifteen per cent more trees can also be put on an 

 acre by this method at same distances. The proper distance apart to 

 place trees is now thought to be eighteen to twenty feet. Trees one year 

 old are preferred. 



PRUNING. 



At the time of planting cut the tops from the trees to a uniform height 

 of sixteen inches from the ground, and let from three to five of the branches 

 growing at equal distances from each other form the top to the trees, and 

 remove all other growth. Wrap the trees with paper below these branches 

 to the ground as a protection from the sun and to keep out the borers. 

 The following winter cut the branches back to six or eight inches long. 

 The next year leave two or three shoots to each branch and cut them to a 

 length of about twelve inches. When the tree is three years old, one third 

 of the growth may be removed, but if a vigorous growth has been made, 

 one half may be cut away and thinning be done to keep the tree properly 

 balanced, with the outer limbs standing at an angle of thirty degrees from 

 a perpendicular. This will always enable plowing to be done close to the 

 tree. After this, one third of the yearly growth is generally removed until 

 the tree is six or seven years old, when the longest branches only are cut 

 back to keep the tree level on its top and thinning sufficient to prevent the 

 top from becoming too bushy. 



FERTILIZING. 



Quite heavy fertilizing can be made profitable. Stable manures are the 

 least expensive when obtained near the orchard. An excellent fertilizer is 

 two hundred pounds of bone dust, twenty-five pounds of potash, and twen- 

 ty-five pounds of lime, placed in barrels or vats, the potash dissolved and 

 poured over the bone dust, and lime then placed on top, and the mass well 

 wet; then covered for ten days, and applied broadcast on an acre of orchard 

 in the fall or winter, plowing or cultivating to immediately follow. This, 

 if applied yearly, is said to furnish the necessary amount of phosphoric 

 acid, nitrogen, lime, and potash to keep the soil in a peach orchard from 

 becoming exhausted. 



CULTIVATING. 



It is usual to begin next to the trees, and plow with one horse three or 

 four furrows on each side of the row to a depth of five or six inches; then 

 with a larger plow and two horses the centers can be plowed to a depth of 

 eight inches. This can be done in the early winter, care being taken not 

 to work the ground when too wet. In February or March a second plow- 

 ing can be made, this time turning the furrows in an opposite direction, 

 which brings the ground back to its original level. Cultivation should 

 immediately follow, before the soil becomes hardened by exposure to the 

 sun and wind. This must be repeated after each succeeding rain, as soon 

 as it becomes sufficiently dry; and after rains have ceased at intervals of 



