1911. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1061 
When to Prune a Peach Tree. 
C. L. S., New York .—When is the proper 
time to cut the suckers from peach trees? 
I can get no two persons to agree. I have 
a couple of trees with considerable fruit 
this year and the immense growth of suck¬ 
ers seemed to retard the development of the 
fruit. 
Ans. —It is a fact that one can sel¬ 
dom find any two orchardists agreeing 
exactly about any part of the training, 
pruning, cultivating, planting or fer¬ 
tilizing of an orchard. One large and 
successful orchardist has quit pruning 
his apple trees altogether, and he grows 
good crops and fine fruit. Another or¬ 
chardist carefully trims every tree, and 
he grows good crops and fine fruit. 
Each gave his methods and experience 
at a horticultural meeting. It brought 
out a question from another orchardist: 
“Which is right? Both of these men 
are good growers and we are at a loss 
to know which method is right.” There 
is but one answer to this whole sub¬ 
ject, and that is to use good common 
sense about when to use the saw and 
knife and when to leave it alone. 
I would train a tree from the start— 
by cutting out all branches that were 
inclined to cross other branches, and 
keep all water sprouts or suckers cut 
out during the Summer, as they draw 
heavily on the life of a tree, taking 
from the fruiting branches the nourish¬ 
ment that should go to make up the 
fruiting wood. The peach tree is very 
apt to send up one strong shoot the 
first year, and leave the other parts that 
ought to have an equal share of nour¬ 
ishment (to make an even balanced 
tree) without nourishment, the result 
of which is a lop-sided tree. By keep¬ 
ing the fast-growing shoot pinched back 
it will retard its upward growth, and 
assist the other two or three branches 
to keep up with it, or in case they do 
not respond by growing and making a 
balanced tree, the strong growing 
branch will send out strong laterals of 
its own when retarded from its upward 
growth, and thus make the tree of even 
proportions itself. The after care of the 
tree should be along the same line. 
Some varieties of peach and other fruit 
trees are inclined to a straight, slender, 
upward growth. All such trees should 
be pinched back during the month of 
June, when the tips of the shoots are 
growing and tender. The pinching back 
can be easily done with a light pair of 
shears or with a strong thumb nail. 
The growth upward is at once retarded 
and the side branches are encouraged 
to grow, and fruit buds are formed 
on the first notice of a check in the 
growth of the tree; suckers start out 
from the branches, new buds are formed 
and a general change is made in the 
growth and form of the tree. The suck¬ 
ers or water sprouts should be removed 
when two or three inches of growth has 
been made by them, as they are then 
tender and can be easily rubbed off 
with the hand, but if left there they 
should be cut off when the Winter 
pruning is done. 
In the case of C. L. S., when the 
trees are in fruit, if the suckers are of 
the present season’s growth, he should 
remove them at once by cutting them 
off close to the limb with a sharp knife, 
but cut out now only enough to let air 
and sunshine into the tree to ripen the 
fruit and relieve the roots from being 
over-taxed by having to supply more 
nourishment than they are able to do 
for the surplus foliage of the robber 
suckers. If a general onslaught is made 
at this time the consequence will be a 
sudden stoppage in the growth of the 
tree and especially growth of the fruit, 
while the root system is endeavoring to 
make repairs in the sudden checking of 
the top growth. This may not be ac¬ 
complished in time to bring out this 
season’s crop of fruit and tree growth. 
Next Winter remove all surplus suck¬ 
ers, prune the whole tree to an even 
balanced and well proportioned top 
and body. The following June take off 
the suckers when they are young and 
tender enough to be rubbed off with 
the hand. Let the growth be outward 
and keep the inside of a tree open so 
as to allow free air drainage and plenty 
of sunlight. Insects and fungus thrive 
in the dark and damp places just as all 
evil exists under the cover of darkness 
and secrecy. Suckers are parasites and 
live and thrive at the expense of the 
main body—whether of society, animal 
or vegetable life. The only way to 
care and keep clear of these pests and 
death drains is to prune with a sharp 
knife or saw for tools and a strong 
fund of common sense for a guide to 
let in the sunlight and give free air 
drainage. The best time is when the 
limbs are small and a knife the largest 
tool necessary. The best season is Feb¬ 
ruary or March, when trees are dor¬ 
mant, and the month of June, when 
trees are growing, and moderate prun¬ 
ing if urgent at any time when we feel 
it must be done. E. s. black. 
Evidence for Spraying. 
We have a small apple tree by the house 
that is always full, but has been noted by 
all to have nearly all stung or wormy 
apples. Just why I cannot say. It is in 
the henyard and none of the apples are 
left under the tree very late. I think I 
have had from two to four baskets of sound 
apples each year in all r perhaps less. 
Nearly all the rest drop. Last Spring one 
night I took my hand pump and a pailful 
of arsenate of lead mixture and sprayed it 
as well as I could in the dusk of the even¬ 
ing. The top limb was beyond the force of 
the spray, but received some poison. The 
results? I have picked 19 baskets in all. 
15 of them sound, marketable apples; per¬ 
haps not all “perfect” apples. Four baskets 
I picked out as stung and small. I sold 
two baskets of drops, and there were about 
four others, mostly premature fruit, that 
was forced off by crowding that dropped, 
early. Did it pay? A number of other 
small fruit trees were sprayed at the same 
time. A small Bartlett tree about six feet 
high gave me about one-eighth of a bushel 
fine pears, all perfect but four. The results 
on the rest were in like proportion, accord¬ 
ing to age and amount of sets. I guess we 
will have to cut down farming in this sec¬ 
tion. No help seems to be had, even for 
money, at certain rush seasons 
Morris Co., N. J. Walter garabrant. 
Fighting the Bean Weevil. 
What about the bean weevil? What can 
be done, if anything, to prevent it? Does it 
originate from eggs laid in the blossom, or 
do they penetrate the beans after ripening? 
West Woodstock, Conn. h. m. b. 
The parent of the bean-weevil is a very 
small beetle, stout' and rounded in shape, 
in color ashen gray marked with white. 
You will often find these little beetles in 
stored beans or peas. The insects lay their 
eggs in the young pods of the plants at¬ 
tacked. when hatched the larvae work their 
way into the forming seed, growing very 
slowly. The only Vnethod of controlling the 
insect is in the stored seed; both beetles 
and larvae are destroyed by the use of 
bisulphide of carbon, in a tight receptacle. 
People often think that they may prevent 
damage by storing the beans in closed re¬ 
ceptacles as soon as harvested, but the 
futility of this is understood when we re¬ 
member that the larvae are already in the 
seeds. As a preventive measure gather the 
entire crop, and allow nothing to remain in 
the field : plant sound seed only, and never 
throw away any weevil.v peas or beans; 
always burn them, or boil and use for stock 
feed. To use the bisulphide of carbon, put 
the beans or other infested seed in a tight 
receptacle, and count on one drachm for each 
cubic foot of space. A drachm may be 
roughly measured as a teaspoonful. ‘ Tut 
in an open vessel on top of the seed, as 
the vapor is heavier than air. and will sink 
all through : close up tightly and leave for 
several hours. This is the proper treat¬ 
ment for destroying weevils in grain. As we 
have often stated before, the carbon bisul¬ 
phide is extremely explosive and inflamma¬ 
ble; a lighted pipe, light of any kind, or 
even a spark is very dangerous, but there 
is no risk if proper care is taken. 
When you write advertisers mention Tiie 
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SHIFT 
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One sort of diet may make a person 
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A young woman from Phila. says: 
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“And this has continued steadily, till 
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Read the little book. “The Road to 
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