*1 PER YEAR. 
VoL. LX. No. 2662. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 2, 1901. 
A COUNCIL OF PEACH KINGS. 
THREE VIEWS OF A MOUNTAIN PEACH. 
An Attempt at Hind Reading. 
In recent issues of The R. N.-Y. I tried to give some 
idea of the coming importance of the mountains of 
Maryland and West Virginia as a peach-growing sec¬ 
tion. The fruit produced on the mountains is not as 
large as that in some highly-cultivated orchards, but 
it is remarkably firm and highly colored, and delicious 
in quality. During our visit to the orchard of E. A. 
Pry—which, by the way, overlooks the battlefield of 
Antietam^—our party missed J. H. Hale and Roland 
Morrill. They were finally discovered in a corner be¬ 
hind the packing shed under the hypnotizing influ¬ 
ence (and camera) of George O. Brown, of the Balti¬ 
more Sun. I feel sure, that R. N.-Y. readers will be 
interested in the picture. Here are three “captains 
of industry”—men who have “done something”—who 
will be gratefully remembered by those who follow 
them. At the right sits Mr. Pry. He is the only fleshy 
man I saw among those mountains. Mr. 
Pry han changed a mountain wilderness 
into a profitable peach orchard. We 
happened to catch him in his working 
clothes. The others wear their Sunday- 
go-to-meeting togs, but they are quite 
able to shed their soft raiment if neces¬ 
sary and hustle with peaches. In the 
center stands J. H. Hale, of Connecticut 
—a familiar figure to many of our read¬ 
ers. What a living example of hustle 
and grit, bull-dog courage and nervous 
energy! Wh pped a dozen times, in the 
opinion of everyone except himself, he 
has made his way to the front with the 
/. igpst bearing peach orchards in the 
world. At the left is Roland Morrill, 
still another type of man. He has dug 
his way up from poverty slowly, pow¬ 
erfully; led by a sublime faith in the 
final success of one who will do his work 
thoroughly and well. They may well be 
called “peach kings.” Pry has con¬ 
quered a mountain wilderness, and Hale 
has mastered a New England pasture 
and an old Georgia cotton plantation. 
Morrill has worked on high-priced land, 
and made his peach trees pay higher 
rent than human tenants could. Surely 
men who master the forces of nature in 
this way are the true kings for America. 
Here are three distinct types of men— 
each a master in the art of peach-grow¬ 
ing! Could we but read their thoughts 
as they sit there facing the sun of that 
crisp September day, what a story we would have! 
The face mirrors the mind, and perhaps we can tell 
from the expression of these men what their thoughts 
are. Mr. Morrill holds a mountain peach—a fruit that 
is destined to change the markets of a continent. Mr. 
Pry is watching it with confidence, affection and pride. 
“There it is,” he is saying silently, “you can see how 
cheaply we produce it, how fine and firm it is, how 
safe we are from frosts up here, and you know the 
vast tracts suited to peach culture. What about it?” 
Mr. Morrill, the thorough, careful cultivator, knows 
these things and has weighed them well. These 
thoughts are in his mind: “I can grow larger peaches 
which will sell for twice the price of this, and yet this 
means real competition in the markets of the coun¬ 
try. This is the peach for the million. I can only 
compete with it by using the most thorough culture 
and care. When these mountain ranges are turned 
into orchards the flood of peaches rolling down these 
hills will sweep away the careless men who are satis¬ 
fied to stop short of the best!” 
Hale, the optimist, has flashed the situation through 
his keen brain. His story is told in his face: “Yes, 
that is a beautiful peach—cheaply grown with unlim¬ 
ited chance for development. Yet we can grow just 
as good peaches on the New England hills, where we 
are within driving distance of the best markets of the 
country. These hills are too far back from the rail¬ 
road. The long haul over these mountain roads will 
cost too much. Very nice! Very nice! But New Eng¬ 
land peaches are just as good and nearer market!” 
So the three men are thinking out their great prob¬ 
lems as they sit in the sun. It is truly a council of 
peach kings. h. w. c. 
Hr. Stringfei/ow Prunes the Poet. 
The recent poetical criticism of my methods (page 
24) was so entertaining that I hope the author will 
give us another effusion, and take for his subject the 
mammoth peach tree alluded to in The R. N.-Y. some 
time ago. I will refresh liis memory by giving the 
main points. It is 27 years old, two feet in diameter, 
stands in a yard midway between house and barn, and 
has never been cultivated so far as known. It has 
never missed a crop of fine peaches, is healthy and 
vigorous, and good for many years to come, though 
never irrigated by anybody’s sweat and has never 
caused anybody to “hustle and jump,” or “kick dust 
through the long Summer day.” He might incident¬ 
ally bring in the fact that nobody has yet claimed the 
$25 I offered for pointing out, anywhere in the United 
States, its equal in size and productiveness, grown by 
the expensive and laborious methods he so wittily ad¬ 
vocates. This tree was grown strictly according to 
the Stringfellow m thod, except the fertilizing and 
mowing, and as the laws of Nature are uniform, like 
results following like causes and conditions, I leave 
it to your readers to choose between my natural and 
lazy method, as demonstrated by this peach tree and 
thousands of other chance seedlings over the country, 
and his unnatural and expensive method, which never 
gives more than one good crop in three years, and 
kills the orchard in 10 years or less time. But remem¬ 
ber, I have nowhere advised the neglect he satirizes. 
Short roots set in firm ground, clean, shallow culture 
for several feet around the trees, with heavy fertiliz¬ 
ing of this circle, and several mowings of the middles 
during the growing season, leaving clippings on the 
ground, constitute the Stringfellow method, so-called. 
If the poet wishes proof of the results obtained by me 
through this method, if he will write to J. C. Glover, 
station agent at Hitchcock, Texas, he will learn that 
I grew heavy crops of pears every year, and in 1894 
shipped 10,000 bushels from 1,500 10-year trees, and 
then sold the orchard for $20,000. 
H. M. STRINGFEUUOW. 
R. N.-Y.—Brother Stringfellow should remember 
that poets are accorded considerable license in their 
efforts to make ideas measure and rhyme. We regret 
to say that figures and facts often give the poet men¬ 
tal dyspepsia. The best theme for a poet in connec¬ 
tion with the Stringfellow method would seem to be 
the fact that so much hustle and cultivation robs both 
trees and men of the calm and satisfactory maturity 
which natural conditions alone can provide. Mr. 
Stringfellow’s orchard is a strong in¬ 
dorsement of his system of planting. 
An Experiment in Turf Culture. 
I have no doubt that the Stringffellow 
method of planting trees would be a suc¬ 
cess, even in turf culture, if the supply 
of moisture could be kept up during the 
entire growing season to the amount 
that we find in the land in the Spring, or 
when the land is frequently cultivated, 
but if it is covered with grass, and no 
mulch is used about the young small 
trees, the growth will be very small in¬ 
deed. My experiments, to which you re¬ 
fer, were not at all like the Stringfel¬ 
low method, though I did plant in turf 
land. I started out with the proposition 
that there are in Massachusetts tens of 
thousands of acres, of little value for 
other purposes, upon which we find 
apple trees growing, and wbere this land 
is rich and naturally moist, or where an 
abundance of fertilizer is applied or 
dropped by numerous cattle in search of 
the fruit, the trees grow vigorously, live 
a long time, and produce large crops of 
highly-colored fruit that is of the best 
quality, and keeps well, and that we 
should utilize this land, which may be 
bought at from $2 to $20 per acre. Such 
sections of the State as the hills of 
Franklin and Hampshire counties are 
noted for their apples, of fine flavor and 
keeping qualities, and such fine orchards 
as those of Dr. Jabez Fisher, of Fitchburg; Jona¬ 
than Eames, of Sherborn, and Moses Palmer, of 
Groton are illustrations of success in growing apples 
in turf culture. This experiment was quite extensive 
(over 30 acres), including not only the apple, but the 
pear, peach, plum, cherry and grape, and while the 
results have not been entirely satisfactory, they have 
been as good as I could expect, owing to conditions 
that I could not control, i. e., to my distance from 
the work (60 miles), and too small a capital. Mr. 
Kinney, of Worcester, has summed up-the situation 
with the expression, “fishing with too long a pole.” 
The apple, pear and cherry trees have made a good, 
though not large, growth; the plums have been a total 
failure, and the grapes only a partial success. 
Among the objections to this method of turf cul¬ 
ture is the large number of borers. Both the round- 
headed and flat-headed borers attack the young trees. 
Other insects and fungous pests are not more numer¬ 
ous than in cultivated land. Woodchucks do much 
harm to young trees, and in very dry seasons th® 
A COUNCIL OP PEACH KINGS—MORRILL, HALE AND PRY, 
