270 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



peach orchard ; but the point of declination, is 

 not in fact of any great moment. Experience 

 proves that the north and west pitch, will, in or- 

 dinary seasons, produce the greatest amount of 

 fruit ; while the southern and eastern pitch, bring 

 the earliest and richest flavored fruit. 



11 The training of a Peach Tree in a single 

 stem, iSfC. The evils arising from this mode of 

 culture, may be all easily and effectually reme- 

 died by substituting the following course of cul- 

 tivation, viz : 



"1. In planting the young trees in the orchard, 

 say about one year after the ingraft, care must 

 be taken, in the first place, to set them some ten 

 or twelve feet apart; this distance will admit a 

 free team passage about the orchard. Then, in 

 the next place, further care must be taken to 

 plant the roots of each seedling full eight inches 

 loiver in the earth than the depth at which it stood 

 in the nursery. This distance down places the 

 roots quite out of the reach of the bug and the 

 worm, and gives them a fair hold upon the 

 earth and the nutriment which it furnishes. — 

 Then, if it should so happen that the worm or 

 other insect, bark the tree and bore it, and even 

 kill it at the ground, new shoots will immediate- 

 ly spring up from the safely bedded root, strong 

 and full of health, and thus keep the orchard 

 stock in good condition. 



{: 2. In the spring, next following the planting 

 of the orchard, each tree must be cut off at the 

 ground. Then, from the root or stump thus 

 left in the earth, fresh sprouts will soon shoot 

 up, as in the subjoined cut, and these are to form 

 the future peach tree. 



" The thrifty stems severed from the slump, 

 may, if taken off at the swell of the leaf bud, 

 be separated into slips of about ten or twelve 

 inches in length, and planted some eight or ten 

 inches deep in the earth, leaving simply a fair 

 sprouting space above the surface. These slips, 

 if the ground be rich, fine, compact, and kindly 

 disposed, will also sprout and grow, forming 

 roots downward, and shoots upward, and this 

 too, as experience teaches, in six or eight cases, 

 as an average, in ever} 1, ten. 



" 4. The sprouts springing from the deeply 

 grounded root, and forming the peach tree, are all 

 held in an upright and family-like position, by 

 the body of earth which surrounds them ; and 

 although the ground in which they stand may 

 be extremely rich, and full of appropriate nour- 

 ishment, — and the sap very profuse, yet, being 

 divided among so many suckers, it affords to 

 each but a moderate share of nutriment; and 

 that share may be easily regulated to suit any 

 quality of ground by increasing or diminishing 

 the number of sprouts. 



" One great object in this mode of culture, is 

 to secure, not a rapid, but a very moderate, not to 

 say, slow growth of the tree, and at the same time, 

 a sound and durable quality of timber, with a smooth 



j and safe bark into which the rain and sleet vrill 

 not penetrate, nor will the frost or post-worm find 

 a ready entrance. 



"4. But should the white grub, in his ram- 

 bles, or the black bug, in his flights, chance to 

 reach one or two of these sprouts, or even all of 

 them at a single visit, which in fact would be a 

 very rare occurrence, and prey upon them, they 

 would all die as a matter of course ; but then 

 the root is safe ; it has felt neither the sting of 

 the one nor the tooth of the other ; and it will 

 soon send up new and healthy shoots, — an entire 

 healthy and graceful peach tree. 



" Experience has proved all this, and it has 

 also proved, that, in such cases, an excess of 

 shoots will often spring up, and make a too mi- 

 nute division of the sap, thereby endangering 

 the health of the whole family of sprouts ; there- 

 fore, these sprouts must be trimmed oat and the 

 number graduated to the condition of the soil. In 

 this trimming, however, some thought must be 

 had as to the nature and state of the ground, its 

 location, pitch, &c. In poor land some three or 

 four shoots are enough, and six or eight in rich 

 soil. Then, as to the relative position and pro- 

 mise of the plants, — division is one object, the 

 preservation of the largest and most thrifty, is 

 another, and both, and all demand the exercise 

 of judgment. But let it be borne in mind, that 

 this surplusage of shoots, let them come whence 

 and when they may, must be removed only at early 

 trimming time. 



" These thrifty sprouts, whether from the root 

 of the nursery tree, or from one killed by the 

 grub, will begin to bear fruit the second or third 

 year ; and by the sixth or seventh year, they 

 become extremely prolific and elegant. In this 

 way, the stock of peach trees may be preserved 

 in a perfectl} 7 healthy state, secure from all ordi- 

 nary casualties, the late spring frosts excepted, 

 for many years ; ay, for whole generations, and 

 rarely show the symptoms of the yellows, as 

 the sickly foliage is generally designated, or the 

 decay of a root or a stem. 



" It may here be observed that, in order to 

 promote the purity of the peach orchard, and pre- 

 serve the beauty and quantity of the fruit, the 

 hog should be allowed the free range of the 

 whole ground, from early grass time up to the 

 ripening of the choice peach ; and when he is 

 restrained from this range, all exposures of the 

 roots of trees, to the ravages of insects, &c, 

 should be carefully covered up, and the ground 

 left somewhat rounding or rising rather than 

 hollow ; for standing water is a deadlj 7 foe to 

 the peach tree." 



Mr. Forman indignantly complains of the 

 impositions practised by some of the northern 

 nurserymen, and threatens, unless bis general 

 complaints produce a reformation, to give names 



