VoL LX. No. 2658. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 5, 1901. 
PER YEAR 
THE ESSENTIALS OF PEACH CULTURE. 
A life’s experience boiled down. 
The Soil, the Tree and Hs Care. 
FIRST OF ALL.—Several years ago, in an article on 
peach culture, I wrote what then seemed to me to be 
“the ten commandments of peach culture ; they were 
widely copied, and I am told have been very helpful 
in leading many to the heaven of a good and profit¬ 
able peach orchard. Now I have forgotten just what 
those “ten commandments’’ were, but am going to 
take it for granted that some of them are now out of 
date, and in reply to The R. N.-Y.’s demand for some 
of the leading requirements to the successful culture 
of the peach, may break the whole ten, for the fellow 
who gets his living by peach growing is learning and 
unlearning some things all the 
time, yet I hope continually 
growing in grace. The first and 
greatest essential to success, is a 
love of Nature; trees, plants and 
living things: a pleasure in their 
care and development; a love of 
peaches because they are so 
beautiful, as well as good, and a 
genuine enjoyment in producing 
the finest peaches that can be 
grown, regardless of whether 
there would be any money profit 
in such production. “Horse 
sense’’ and good business judg¬ 
ment, with the “under-dog” habit 
of never knowing when you are 
whipped, are further require¬ 
ments; and abrupt elevations of 
lands that are reasonably free 
from water, and that furnish 
quick frost and air drainage. 
THE SOIL.—A warm, light, 
loamy soil is best, yet about any 
except a stiff clay will answer, if 
other things are right. I used 
just to dote on commercial fer¬ 
tilizers, but am now convinced 
that with culture enough (and 
yet who will ever give culture 
enough?) there is not the neces¬ 
sity for the great amounts of fer¬ 
tilizers we have been applying. 
Rocky hill lands that have been 
just a little too tough a proposi¬ 
tion for good tillage in the past, 
make an ideal foundation for a 
peach orchard; there is color and 
flavor for peaches in these rocky 
old hills, and it is cheaper to re¬ 
move rocks at odd seasons of the 
year than to buy fertilizers. I 
have already reclaimed two so- 
called abandoned farms, and 
have 125 acres of promising orchard among the rocks, 
or where they once were. Have now tackled another 
50-acre tract of rocks, trees and brush, properties that 
I would not have taken as a gift eight years ago, and 
so bad now that agricultural college trustees, mem¬ 
bers of State boards of agriculture, high officials in 
the Grange, professors of horticulture and other 
“visiting statesmen,” all shake their heads and say. 
“I don’t know”; one or two more outspoken than the 
rest even went so far as to say I was “peach crazy” 
and “stark mad” to waste money on such rough lands, 
when good cleared land could be bought at less than 
the cost of clearing this; well, perhaps so, but if 1 
don’t get more fun and profit out of the rough-land 
peach orchards than some fellows do on their so- 
called “better land” it will be a surprise party to me. 
Digging out rocks beats subsoiling, yet where the 
rocks are out of the way, it will pay to use a subsoil 
plow before planting the orchard, except, of course, 
where lands have sandy or gravel subsoil; and if the 
land is too rough to lick into shape, don’t plant the 
trees the first year; just plow the best you can, and 
sow cow peas broadcast thickly; they are great helps 
in breaking up land, besides enriching it. 
GET BIG TREES.—When ready to plant trees, get 
big ones. I have planted nearly 400,000 peach trees in 
orchards the past 20 years, nearly all June-budded or 
else light to medium-sized one-year trees, with occa¬ 
sional lots of heavy No. 1 or extra-sized trees. I have 
fooled myself with “good medium three to four-foot 
trees” long enough; from now on give me the big 
ones; five to six feet high and three-quarters-inch 
caliper will lay the foundation of a better orchard 
than any smaller size. I really care nothing about 
the top, so long as you can get a heavy root and 
strong cane 15 or 18 inches up; you will cut away the 
rest anyway, and so be in shape to build any sort of 
top you may. Distance apart; well, here is where the 
man comes in again, and then the locality; I have 
made the most money North and South planting 13 
feet apart or closer each way. Of course, it means a 
lot of pruning, while wide-apart planting tempts neg¬ 
lect of this most necessary operation with the peach 
tree. Stiil, taking human nature as it is, I cannot ad¬ 
vise the other fellow to plant very close, 18 to 22 feet 
apart each way will doubtless give the best results; 
planting closer in the South than in the North, where 
trees are inclined to more wood and foliage growth. 
Don’t plant any so-called “catch crops” in a young 
orchard: you’ll catch it if you do; plant horse and 
mule legs in plenty, up and down and across, between 
the peach trees, their hoof prints will do no harm if 
harrows and cultivators follow close behind. At least 
once a week for the three best growing months of 
May, June and July in this latitude allows 12 to 15 
good cultures, and if you throw in a few more for 
good luck, the trees will smile on you for it. 
GREEN CROPS.—The first two years, after a month 
or six weeks of thorough culture, seed to cow peas 
over two-thirds the space between the rows of trees, 
leaving space enough for good single-horse culture 
up and down each side of the trees for two months 
more. Leaving the pea vines on the ground as a Win¬ 
ter mulch will be less loss than to plow them undei', 
and so have bare ground all Winter. After two years 
of peas in an orchard the tree roots should reach out 
through the whole orchard, and 
should have the whole run of it 
to feed and drink upon during 
the rapid growing months, when 
the liveliest culture is being 
given. If culture has been what 
it ought from opening of Spring 
down to last of July or early 
August, trees will be growing so 
fast that they can’t well stop be¬ 
fore Fall, and the whole ground 
should be seeded to clover at the 
last cultivation. I consider 15 to 
20 pounds of seed per acre is lit¬ 
tle enough for a thick clover car¬ 
pet over the ground through the 
Fall and Winter, and is a great 
protection to peach roots. Plow 
this clover under early the next 
Spring; don’t fool yourself into 
letting it grow a few weeks in 
Spring, so as “to have a lot of 
stuff to plow under”; six weeks 
of the best peach season’s growth 
can easily be checked by allow¬ 
ing the clover to grow two or 
three weeks after it’s time to 
Spring-plow the orchard. The 
time to begin Spring culture in 
a peach orchard is just as soon 
as the soil can easily be worked 
after frost is out. 
PRUNING.—As to pruning, a 
light open head is what is want¬ 
ed; don’t shorten in too much of 
first year’s growth. The second 
year shorten pretty liberally all 
the strongest branches, and let 
the side branches spread so as to 
make a broad low head. After 
the second year, cut away most 
of the strong leaders entirely ev¬ 
ery season; if in any instance it 
seems best not to cut one entirely 
away, never cut it back to a dormant bud, but always 
to some side branches; these will slowly take on 
growth and great fruiting strength, and check the 
upward tendency of growth that is sure to follow the 
cutting back of a strong peach limb to a dormant bud. 
Don’t bother much with the little side branches, high 
or low, that will never make leaders. Most pruners 
like to slick up the trunk and main branches of a 
peach tree by cutting these all away. It is a fruiting 
mistake to do this; pruning a peach tree as here sug¬ 
gested should give three-fourths of the fruit near 
enough to the ground so that it can be gathered with¬ 
out the use of stepladders. Learn to know yellows m 
a tree at sight a year or two before it hangs out its 
sign with “pennyroyal sprouts” or prematurely high- 
colored fruit. Promptly pull and burn all yellows-in- 
fested trees, no matter what other job you may have 
THE OTAHEITE ORANGE. Fie. 1. See Ruralisms, Page 6. 
