175 



Mr. Thomas, of Fresno: I have seen, under very badly affected pepper 

 trees, grass affected the same way, indicating that there was a fungus 

 growth, and some of the drippings on to that grass affected it the same as 

 the leaf above. 



A Delegate: I wish to make a suggestion. I have noticed the trees 

 most troubled with the curled leaf were those that were cut back the most, 

 and I attribute the curled leaf to the stoppage of the sap that becomes 

 sour in the tree. Right across the road from where I live is a little nur- 

 sery that was planted there, mostly of apricots and peaches to sell. They 

 never were budded or grafted either, and they were there for three years, 

 and some of them just as they were planted in the row are thirty feet high, 

 and they bear every year, but of course the fruit is good for nothing; and 

 there never has been a curled leaf on those trees. Perhaps the gentlemen 

 can tell why. The experience I had with the curled leaf tells me that we 

 prune too much. It stops the sap, and the warm weather comes on after- 

 wards and sours the trees, and there is not top enough left to take up the 

 surplus of the sap, and of course it collects at the end of the limb, and 

 curled leaf is the consequence. 



Mr. Kimball, of San Diego: I will ask what is the longevity of the peach, 

 seedling or budded? There is now at the old Mission San Luis Rev peach 

 trees which were there in 1832, and I am informed by Mr. L. Arguello that 

 there are trees in Lower California over eighty years old, seedling trees 

 bearing continuous crops every year. 



Dr. Kimball: That goes to show, as we know, that the Spanish planted 

 only seedlings. 



Mr. Hatch: It is hard to tell in California what age a peach tree would 

 attain and bear good crops, if it was properly taken care of. On the place 

 I first purchased in Suisun Valley there were some peach trees at that time 

 thirteen years old; the first year I was there, with the light pruning such as 

 we commonly did at that time, there was fuzz and skin enough to cover 

 the seeds: I had heard some years before that ashes were good in Europe 

 for peach trees : I cut the tops off very severely, and that fall and winter 

 I sprinkled two or three buckets of ashes about those trees; there was not 

 a great deal of fruit on that year, but it was very fine, and those trees 

 remained there for about twelve years under my care, and they always 

 produced fine peaches. There were two Morris White and two Tillotsons, 

 fine, healthy trees, and they were finally taken up to make the rows straight 

 in the orchard, and not because they had at all deteriorated; the last two 

 years the two Tillotson trees furnished thirty-seven boxes of good peaches. 



Mr. Smith: There are now grown in Vaca Valley peach trees that were 

 set out in the winter of 1856-7. They were budded trees of the Early 

 Crawford. Strawberry, Old Mixon Free, and Old Mixon Cling — about fifty 

 trees of those four varieties — and they are now bearing a good crop on them 

 this year, and the fruit was fine and nice. Some of those trees are dead on 

 the southwest side from severe burning, but they were trimmed up about 

 rive feet high, so that a man and a horse can walk under them. Every one 

 of those trees are badly sun-burned on what is called the two o'clock side, 

 but they bear good crops, and bid fair to bear crops for many years; that 

 shows conclusively that in California, at least, the peach tree is a long-lived 

 tree. 



Mr. Hatch: As to sun-burn, I have seen trees planted without burning 

 nearly as high as it was in the nursery, and if they have any reason they 

 want to keep it that way, and want to keep it from the effects of the sun- 

 burn. I have used for quite a number of years a simple remedy: I make 

 a wash of whale oil soap and water, one pound of whale oil soap to the gal- 



