108 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
rious to the peach tree root. If virgin 
soil is not available, spade in eight or ten 
quarts of Canada hard wood ashes in a 
space three or four feet in diameter where 
each tree is to be planted. 
Third—Fertilize liberally, applying 
from three to six pounds of good Orange 
Tree Grower fertilizer the first year to 
be worked into the soil in three or four 
applications, in the same way as for 
young orange or grapefruit trees. The 
second year apply from six to ten pounds 
of fruit-producing fertilizer, or what is 
sometimes termed as fruit and vine ma¬ 
nure, analyzing at least io to 12 per 
cent, of potash, in two applications, one 
in February and the second between 
April 1st and 10th. 
Fourth—Cultivate shallow with clean 
culture for the entire first year. For the 
'second year clean culture commencing in 
January and continuing until after the 
fruit crop is off and all decayed or drop¬ 
ped fruit is removed from the orchard, 
after which beggar weed should be sowed 
and allowed to cover the ground. 
Fifth—No pruning is required, aside 
from the shaping of the tree in to the 
form you wish it to grow, which should 
be an open vase shaped form, and the re¬ 
moving of chafing limbs. 
Sixth—If the orchard becomes infest¬ 
ed with San Jose or other scales, which 
it is liable to, as the San Jose scale is now 
widely disseminated throughout the 
State, spray the trees during the winter 
with self-boiled lime and sulphur mix¬ 
ture, and during the summer with Whale 
Oil Soap, a light application, or with 
carefully prepared self-boiled lime and 
sulphur mixture, the latter being a val¬ 
uable fungicide as well. 
Were it not for the necessity of spray¬ 
ing for curculio and brown rot, for which 
a fungicide must be used, thereby killing 
out the natural fungus enemies of the 
scales, the writer would recommend the 
introduction of the fungus in the orchard 
to control the scale situation instead of 
spraying. 
Seventh—Curculio: Did you ever see 
a worm in a peach? Well, that is the re¬ 
sult of the sting of the curculio. The ear¬ 
lier varieties of Florida peaches are not 
so badly infested as later ripening sorts, 
as they bloom and set the fruit before 
the first brood comes out of the pupa 
stage, and the fruit ripens before the sec¬ 
ond brood of insects or curculios lay the 
eggs which cause the worms fn the fruit 
at the ripening season. All trash, dead 
grass, brush and bushes should be de¬ 
stroyed and the ground kept clean around 
the peach trees or orchard for a distance 
of a hundred feet or more, from about 
January or the 1st of February until af¬ 
ter the peaches have ripened and the drop¬ 
ped fruit has been removed from the or¬ 
chard. This cleaning up and stirring of 
the ground destroys many of the pupa 
and reduces the number of curculio that 
will sting the newly set fruit. The young 
fruit that is stung will drop when it is 
from a third to a half grown. The larva 
in this young fruit goes into the 
ground, passes through the pupa stage, 
and develops into an adult curculio 
in time to sting the later ripen¬ 
ing varieties of peaches just be¬ 
fore they commence to mature. The 
