THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 27 
156 
WHAT ABOUT FROZEN PEACH 
TREES? 
Shall We Cut Off or Dig Out? 
0. W. N., Plymouth Go., Mass.—What shall 
I do with my. peach trees? All are killed 
to the snow line; some eight to 12 inches 
from the ground. I have about seven acres 
that have grown two years, are very large, 
and several acres that have grown from 
three to seven years. If sawed off, will 
they sprout and make good trees, or would 
they better be dug out and the ground 
utilized for other crops? 
Hale Will Pull Out. 
If they are young trees three years 
and under I think by sawing them off 
down to within two or three inches of 
the healthy wood, then painting over 
heavily with white lead paint, a ma¬ 
jority of them will be likely to sprout 
above where they were budded and 
make good trees, although with no 
growing limbs to pump sap some of 
them will probably fail to sprout and so 
leave the orchard somewhat irregular. 
I am going to try this plan myself in 
one young orchard, but in my older or¬ 
chards that are so badly damaged I am 
going to pull all out and start over 
again. J. h. hale. 
Depends on the Tree. 
This I take it would mean trees killed 
back to the trunk at least. Such trees, 
if cut back to the trunk, would in some 
cases start some new limbs, but a large 
share of the trees will die. The reason 
is because the effect of the freeze goes 
further and weakens them. A healthy 
tree of two or three years will generally 
grow all right, as when broken with 
fruit or snow. The question came up 
at the Hartford meeting and was an¬ 
swered by several who have tried it: 
“Take them out.” If, however, it relates 
to trees that are only partly top-killed 
those may be cut back and the tree often 
recover. a. g. gulley. 
Conn. Agricultural College. 
Saw Them Off. 
If I had a peach orchard two years 
old, of large healthy trees, recently 
frozen, I would saw them off, provided, 
of course, they were not frozen below 
where they were budded in the nursery. 
I see no reason why they should not put 
forth healthy sprouts, which in time 
would make good trees. A few years 
ago a corner of one of my orchards was 
badly damaged by cattle. The trees 
were yearlings. The next Spring we 
sawed the trees off a few inches above 
the bud; with the exception of one or 
two trees, which sprouted below the bud, 
they put forth shoots which made pro¬ 
fitable trees. From my experience with 
these trees I would be willing to treat 
frozen trees in the same manner. 
Sussex Co., N. J. a. e. rutherford. 
Edwin Hoyt Would Dig Out. 
I have my doubts as to the practica¬ 
bility of cutting the peach trees down to 
the snow line, with the idea that the 
stump left will sprout and make a top. 
If the tree top and body is dead down to 
the snow line the probability is that the 
center of the wood of the body below 
the snow line is dark colored and in¬ 
jured. The sprouts will be fully as li¬ 
able (and a little more so) to come up 
from below where the bud to make the 
tree was inserted, and unless pains are 
taken to keep these broken off, more of 
the trees would hear natural fruit than 
otherwise. Again, if the tree should be 
renewed by this cutting process, it 
would take three years to get it up to 
bearing very much, so I believe to re¬ 
plant the orchard with young trees 
would be as cheap and much better at 
the end of three years than to try to 
bring these dead top trees into a bear¬ 
ing orchard again. I would not advise 
this course. edwin hoyt. 
Connecticut. 
Go to an Honest Grower. 
What would I do with a peach or¬ 
chard killed by frost down to the snow 
line? If I were a tenderfoot in the busi¬ 
ness I would go to the most honest and 
successful peach grower in my neigh¬ 
borhood, and offer to pay him to come 
and look it over and get his advice on 
the matter. Are the trees worth saving 
as far as damage from freezing affects 
them, are the varieties worth cultivat¬ 
ing in that locality, is the location such 
as to hold out reasonable prospect of 
success? Then if the answers were all 
favorable I would employ him to trim 
a few trees for me, and then go in and 
beat my other tenderfoot neighbors who 
depended upon their agricultural paper 
to run their orchards. But seriously it 
is a hard matter to tell if a tree which 
you never saw is worth saving. If the 
limbs are uninjured for a foot or more 
from the trunk, they can be cut back, 
and in most cases form new heads and 
prove profitable trees. If the trunk or 
part of it only were alive on two-year- 
old or older trees I should pull them up. 
Massachusetts. h. o. mead. 
Generally Best to Dig. 
In the case of peach trees frozen in 
the ground it would generally be best, 
in my judgment, to dig them out entire¬ 
ly. With young trees killed to the snow 
line this might not be necessary. Espe¬ 
cially if there were some of the main 
branches left with enough vigor to make 
a reasonable start in the Spring, it 
would be satisfactory to keep the trees, 
and they should be cut back to sound 
wood. We have tried this method of 
cutting back trees, leaving only the 
main trunk and stubs of the main 
branches. These stubs would have a 
length of about two feet. We have used 
such cutting back where we wished to 
rebud the tops. Many of your readers 
are familiar with Mr. Hale’s work done 
in the same way with trees under eight 
or 10 years of age. This is almost al¬ 
ways successful, and I should expect it 
to be very satisfactory with trees frozen 
back in the Winter. A good deal could 
depend, of course, upon the vigor of the 
tree. Where trees are treated in this 
way it would be wise to give them thor¬ 
ough cultivation in the Spring, and in 
special cases to apply a small amount 
of quick-acting fertilizer, preferably ni¬ 
trate of soda. Where injury is less only 
recent wood being frozen, it will doubt¬ 
less be best to cut back the branches to 
sound wood. When the Northwestern 
States had a visitation of severe freez¬ 
ing in 1899 there was a good deal of ex¬ 
perience accumulated on this point. The 
men who had that experience unfortu¬ 
nately do not agree fully as to what 
treatment should be given. Some claim 
that the tops are better if cut back 
closely, and others maintain that it is 
better to leave the entire tops until the 
end of the first growing year. In spite 
of this I am quite confident that the best 
treatment for Winter-injured peaches is 
that outlined above. We had an oppor¬ 
tunity to make a test of this on rather 
a large scale a year ago, and the results 
were eminently satisfactory. 
Mass. Agr’l. College. f. a. waugh. 
Cut Back to Stubs. 
If I believed the trees were so badly 
damaged by the freeze as to make it 
necessary to cut back to the snow line 
(that is, they would not start to grow 
higher up), I would remove the trees 
entirely and start with new ones. I have 
never had any success with trees start¬ 
ing to grow when necessary to cut back 
so severely as that would be, whatever 
the reason that seemed to require it. I 
would suggest that the tops of the trees 
be cut back very severely so that the 
stubs left be 1 V 2 to three feet long from 
stem, on young trees, and on older and 
quite large trees have stubs three to six 
feet long, depending on size of tree and 
probable damage to same. Commence 
to cultivate early in growing season and 
often. If soil is in moderate or poor 
condition of fertility use a quickly-act¬ 
ing form of fertilizer, enough to start 
up promptly, if possible, a vigorous 
growth. If the internal structure of the 
tree is not so badly damaged but that 
the sap will flow up into these stubs in 
sufficient quantity new growth will com¬ 
mence and the damage to the old wood 
will be in a measure repaired. The re¬ 
moval of part of the damaged top en¬ 
ables the vital force of the tree, if in ex¬ 
cess of that required to overcome the 
damage to the tree structure, to be used 
in making new and sound wood. The 
severe cold of December 9, Winter of 
1902-3, was the cause of great damage 
to peach and plum orchards in Connec¬ 
ticut, so far as opportunity has given 
me a chance to observe during the past 
Summer. Quite a few trees in our main 
orchard six and seven years old were so 
badly frozen that the bark on the stem 
of the trees split and rolled back like a 
parchment, leaving the wood of the tree 
exposed. These trees were treated as 
previously stated, the limbs being one 
to two inches in diameter, where cut, 
and most of the trees responded with a 
new growth of wood two to five feet in 
length, vigorous and healthy in appear¬ 
ance. If the trees will not start in cut¬ 
ting the limbs back to stubs as stated 
I should have no faith to believe that 
more severe cutting would cause them 
to do so, for I should consider the trees 
as killed, or the vitality of the trees so 
badly hurt as to amount to that. 
.T. NORRIS RARNES. 
New Haven Co., Conn. 
Wiley's 
Trees., 
treatise on Peach Culture. 
Cayuga, N. Y. 
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