1911. 
©19 
GROWING PEACH SEEDLINGS IN WESTERN 
NEW YORK. 
Where the Seed Comes From. 
To grow a peach seedling requires a great amount 
of careful attention in getting the pits, having them 
germinate, and getting them to grow big enough to 
be budded the same year that the seed is planted. 
Northern nurserymen experience more difficulty than 
the southern growers, but this work has to be done in 
the north to get trees adapted to the climate. It is 
the common experience of nurserymen that peach pits 
taken from budded varieties will not do so well as the 
natural pits that are gathered in the mountains of 
Tennessee and North Carolina. If these natural pits 
could be had elsewhere, they would undoubtedly be 
just as good, but there is where they grow in quanti¬ 
ties large enough to supply the demands of northern 
nurserymen. They are gathered in small lots by the 
country people there, and sold at the local store. 
From there they get into the hands of seed com¬ 
panies and nursery firms of the South, who sell them 
in large lots to northern nurserymen at prices ranging 
from $1 to $3 per bushel. This year, however, the 
frosts destroyed practically all the peach crop in the 
South, and consequently pits will be very scarce and 
high. Nurserymen for next year’s planting will have 
to rely on the supply they have on hand, and on what 
they can pick up of last year’s seed. These natural 
peach seeds are small in comparison with the pit of a 
budded peach. They send up a strong thrifty seed¬ 
ling, and a bud inserted from the scion of any stand¬ 
ard variety of peach will live and do well on them, 
while on the other hand, if you take, for instance, 
a Crawford peach pit for this purpose, 
it will not do as well, the bud will not 
be so apt to live in it, and the young 
tree is more subject to peach diseases. 
For these reasons nurserymen do not 
find it profitable to use any other than 
the natural southern grown peach pits. 
There are several ways employed by 
nurserymen in planting the seed. Some 
sow them in the Fall in rows Z l / 2 feet 
apart and about two inches apart in the 
row. They are covered to a depth of 
about three inches and some of this 
raked off in the Spring when they are 
about to peep through. This method is 
attended with considerable risk. Often 
only half the pits germinate, sometimes 
none at all and the whole planting has 
to be plowed up. The Genesee Valley 
has a fine silt loam that remains quite 
wet in places during the Winter, and 
nurserymen there sometimes have re¬ 
markable success with this method. 
Like Fall planting of trees, the seeds 
germinate and start to grow very early, 
and make a better growth than those 
planted in the Spring. 
The custom most commonly followed 
is to put the pits in sand in the Fall 
and wet them down well. A trench is 
made for them right out in the open. 
They should not be buried too deep, as 
they need to have the frost get at them 
during the Winter. It is claimed that the frost 
cracks them open. Nurserymen buy a large number 
of pits and treat them in this way. They leave them 
in this trench for two or more years, going over them 
several times each Spring and picking the meats out 
of the pits that have cracked open. 
Another way now quite extensively practiced is to 
put the pits in a warm cellar in the Fall and pack 
them in damp sawdust. A large percentage of them 
germinate in the Spring, and they can be sorted out 
for planting. In this way nurserymen are more apt 
to get a good even stand than they would to sow the 
pits in the row regardless of whether they would 
germinate or not. 
Cracking them open with a hammer or a peach 
cracker and then sowing the meats does not prove 
successful. The seedlings are weak, and only a small 
percentage of the meats grow at all. Peach meats 
should be planted about one-half inch deep and not 
until the ground has warmed up. They are very 
delicate, and it takes them a long time to get over 
ground. When they do come up they should be kept 
free from weeds and well cultivated until they get a 
start. We do not as yet half appreciate the value, as 
a disease preventive both for then and for later on, 
in maintaining a steady, thrifty growth in a young 
plant. After they get well started the work on them 
up to September is comparatively easy. First of all 
the soil must be right; it needs to be of the sandy 
loam type and extremely fertile. The young seedlings 
must have careful and frequent cultivation during the 
THE RURAL) NEW-YORKEBJ 
hot, dry Summer months, so as to keep up a vigorous 
growth until they are ready to be budded in the early 
part of September. martin king, jr. 
WHAT AGE OF TREE? 
In planting trees, particularly apple, what age do you 
prefer? Would you select a yearling or a two-year-old 
and why? 
In buying nursery stock I prefer a well-grown 
two-year-old tree, believing a tree of this age will 
stand the shock of transplanting better than a yearling 
tree. In buying year-old trees you are quite likely 
to get two-year-old age of year-old size, as most 
nurserymen grade their two-year-old blocks with dif¬ 
ferent sizes, and I would not want a poorly-grown 
two-year-old tree at any price. It is my opinion you 
lose more than one year of time in planting the smaller 
size tree. grant g. hitchings. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. 
In planting apple trees I have learned from experi¬ 
ence that a fine well-grown one-year tree that is a 
fair example of its particular variety has a go-ahead 
quality which leaves nothing to be desired. Were I 
now planting orchards and could get such trees, with 
weaklings eliminated, I would take them in preference 
to two-year-old trees. There are several advantages 
in choosing the younger tree. Their roots are un¬ 
mutilated, they can be more quickly planted, they can 
be trained to any form desired, whereas the older 
tree is already headed by the nurseryman, and is 
liable in many cases to have a very undesirable form 
of head, necessitating entire remodeling by the or- 
chardist, and it is sometimes no small task to get 
such a tree just right. Further, I have in my or¬ 
chards many examples of one-year trees planted at 
the same time with two-year trees which have sur¬ 
passed the latter in growth and performance. I have 
demonstrated the same with plums and cherries. In 
buying two-year trees where I have a choice I would 
avoid those that are overgrown. The tree that thus 
early shows its characteristics as a wood producer is 
very liable to carry such habit through life, and it is 
my belief also, based on experience, that a more 
moderate sized but sturdy tree of the same age should 
be and will be wisely chosen as a fruit producer. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. w. s. teator. 
I usually plant a two-year-old tree, unless it is a 
peach, which is always a one-year-old. There is this 
advantage of planting a one-year-old tree; you can 
start the head just where you want it, and if you can 
give it extra care, it will make a bearing tree about as 
quick as an older tree. I think a three or four-year- 
old apple tree, if taken up and planted carefully, will 
come to bearing age sooner than a younger tree. Much 
depends on the man who plants it. delos tenny. 
New York. 
I am somewhat particular, perhaps “cranky,” about 
forming the heads of my apple trees, and so much 
prefer, when I can get them, strong, vigorous whips 
of one year’s growth, either strong one-year buds, or 
root-grafts cut back after one year, then allowed to 
grow one year more, thus giving a strong one-year 
top on a two-year root. I want roots on my trees, 
and do not believe in the Stringfellow method for 
Illinois conditions. \\ ith a vigorous whip I can form 
the top as I please, and waste but little of the growth 
of the tree, while in an old tree, which is usually 
heavily branched, much pruning is necessary to get 
the tree shaped properly, and I prefer to remove the 
young shoots rather than heavy branches. Good one- 
year trees will usually start more vigorously, arc 
easier handled and planted, and in a few years will 
be as large as the trees which were older when 
planted. Occasionally when planting a single tree in 
an exposed place a larger tree may be desirable, as 
less likely to be run over and injured, but even then 
a heavy stake by the side of it will protect it. I be¬ 
lieve in thorough preparation of the soil before plant¬ 
ing, then careful planting followed by good cultiva¬ 
tion, and under these conditions, instead of preferring 
the older trees at double the price, I would prefer 
the one-year trees at the same price. My principal or¬ 
chard experience is with apple trees, but I think the 
above will apply as well to pears, and I should say 
most emphatically to plant only one-year peaches. 
Illinois. L. R. BRYANT. 
For the average fruit grower the two-year tree is 
the best. At this age the root system is not so large 
but that the balance between the roots and .top can 
be managed very well. In the older trees this is 
more difficult. It is generally not difficult to get the 
two-year tree started off well. However, in the hands 
of a careful orchardist, probably the best results can 
be obtained by planting the year-old trees. This can 
then be headed and shaped up more- to the notion of 
the grower. There are advantages and disadvan¬ 
tages in both. saSiuel guerrant. 
Tt is true that there is a popular de¬ 
man for yearling trees. I was in one of 
the largest western New York nurser¬ 
ies last week, and the manager told m • 
that his yearlings were all sold; at the 
same time he had yet as fine a lot of 
two-year-olds as one would wish to see. 
Is this desire for yearling trees well 
founded? As I see it, the facts are 
these: When one gets a one-year-old 
apple tree he must of necessity get the 
flower of the flock—as it were—for no 
others are fit to go. This is a decided 
advantage. Then he can shape the head 
to suit his fancy much better than with 
an older tree, often a great advantage. 
Theoretically, there is less shock in re¬ 
planting a young tree, and one should 
get with it a larger proportion of roots 
than with one which is older. Experi¬ 
ence shows that this is offset by the fact 
that the small young tree will suffer 
more from cold and drought than one 
larger and older. This has been very 
noticeable this past season; hundreds of 
year-old trees set last Fall were frozen 
back so they were worthless, and hun¬ 
dreds more died that were Spring set 
because the small stalk dried up before 
the roots could obtain nourishment 
from the soil. Two-year-olds, under 
the same conditions, have come through 
with a small proportion of loss. 
I have some very fine young trees which 
were set at one year, and I know of many 
more; nevertheless I prefer a thrifty two-year- 
old, not one that is unduly large, and quite 
likely sappy, if I can select the tree, or have them 
selected by one in whom I have confidence, for I will 
have the chances in my favor under favorable weather 
conditions, and I have a year to the good of growth, 
which is well worth the extra cost of the tree. Any 
nurseryman would prefer to sell yearlings at the price 
they bring, as an economic proposition, than to care 
for them the second year for the advance. After last 
Winter’s experience with some 4,000 trees in this 
neighborhood, I would not set a yearling tree in the 
Fall, although I prefer Fall setting. I refer to apples 
and pears; with peaches, which are nearly always 
Spring set, and are much more rapid growers, I 
would use the yearling. Under no conditions would I 
set a three-year-old if it were possible to obtain any 
others. All the objection to the two-year-old is in¬ 
tensified in the three-year-old. Further, and very much 
to the point, there is no three-year-old tree offered 
for sale, nor has been for the past five years, which 
would not have been sold as a two-year-old if it had 
been good enough, for the demand has been far 
greater than the supply. The three-year-olds are cull 
trees, or were the year previous. Yet I know of in¬ 
stances where tree missionaries( ?) are charging more 
for them because they claim they are superior. I 
can see nothing in favor of setting a three-year-old 
tree. 
Columbia Co., N. Y. edward van alstyne. 
A BLOCK OF GOOD PEACH SEEDLINGS. Fig. 360. 
