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Mr. Hatch: I would like to ask Mr. Butler what number of tons of 

 peaches, per acre, do you call raising peaches for fruit ? 



Mr. Butler: The quantity we get there from an orchard in full bearing 

 is from four to six boxes a tree, and it is only from one hundred to one 

 hundred and twenty-five trees to the acre; that would be about one hun- 

 dred pounds to the tree. Now of course there are exceptions to that rule. 

 We irrigate there in growing peaches, and along my main line of ditch some 

 of my trees this year yielded from ten to eighteen boxes per tree; and the 

 average of ripe peaches would be at least six boxes. I know there is some 

 parts of the State where they get a larger yield; I am only reckoning on 

 what we ship. There is a demand for peaches grown in that section, and 

 ours is the last point on the railroad from which they ship. 



Mr. Hatch: I want to ask Mr. Gray how many peaches they get per 

 acre ? 



Mr. Gray: I don't want it understood to be in a bragging way at all, 

 but we have picked three hundred to three hundred and fifty pounds from 

 four-year old trees several times; that is, in quite large numbers, from the 

 same orchard. 



Mr. Booth: I think I can answer the question as to the whole amount 

 that comes from the acre, because I have weighed a great many tons from 

 my place in Placer County — I have weighed from twelve to fourteen tons 

 to the acre. 



General Chipmax: There are two points presented in this discussion 

 upon which I want to say a word. I am a young planter, and the nursery- 

 men told me to plant twenty feet apart in the catalogues; I did not think 

 they wanted to sell me twice the number of trees to the acre, and I don't 

 think they did, but I made a grievous mistake. I have got one hundred 

 and fifty acres of various fruits planted twenty feet apart, and I believe I 

 would give $100 an acre if they were thirty feet apart; it is too late to 

 remedy it, and I want to grow trees for wood and fruit both. Now, on the 

 question of catting back the first year, Mr. Butler says sixteen inches; I 

 have spoiled part of my orchard by following the rule which was intro- 

 duced here of cutting to the knee, which was about sixteen or eighteen 

 inches. I think it is a mistake to have a tree branch out above twelve 

 inches from the ground, and a very great mistake. It is made by young 

 planters very persistently; it is made in that very intelligent orchard 

 across the way. I passed trees to-day that had better be grubbed out four 

 or five years old, a mistake which ought not to be made four or five years 

 ago by intelligent orchardists in this State. There are trees there branch- 

 ing out on an average three feet from the ground. I think it is a very 

 grievous mistake and I want to emphasize it, as it has been brought forward 

 here in the discussion, and to my mind it is one of the fundamental mis- 

 takes. It begins in the first year, the very time you plant your tree. I 

 have gone out to young orchards in my vicinity where the eastern man 

 has come in with his old fashioned ideas of walking under the branches, 

 and having his picnic under the apple trees, and I could not make him 

 cut them down. The reasons are so obvious that it is hardly necessary to 

 occupy the space of your record; to some eyes the body of the tree is pro- 

 tected from the scorching sun and the heat of the valley. Second, the 

 fruit is within reach. Third, the system of pruning, which goes with 

 that, enables you to keep your tree in a better shape; and fourth, you get 

 more readily the moisture from the ground; you don't have so far to travel 

 to get to your fruit, and in that way you have superior fruit. I want to 

 emphasize this to the young planters who come from the East, in order 



