314 
The Pruning of Peach Trees Previous to 
Planting in the Orchard 
A HYING OPINIG^-JS.—There is considerable 
dillei’cnce of oitiiiinn about whicli is the most 
d(‘sirab]<' lieij;ht at which to prune peach trees when 
iliey are i>lanted in the orchard. Most authorities 
A Double-worked Tree ai Hope Farm. Fig. 119. See Page 316 
nj,'re(' to the extent (hat .ill broken i-oots should be 
cut smooth and that the side roots should be iiruiied 
to a length not mnch exceeding six inches. It is the 
length or the height of the trunk above ground over 
which the difloi'ence of ojiinion occurs. In general, 
the lieight to which the trunk of a nursery tree is 
cut at the time of planting is based entirely uiion 
the ideal of the grower as to the lieight at which 
he desires the side brandies of the tree to develop. 
LOW REAltlNG KHANniKS.— All fruitgrowers 
desire to have the fruit-bearing surface of their 
trees as near to Ihi" ground as possible, and some 
hold the opinion that the liest way to secure this is 
jlractically to eliminate the trunk of a tree, and 
have the main branches start almost at the surface 
of the ground. In fact, at the present time vei-y 
fmv commercial peach growers can be found who 
form the heads of tlndr trees higher than 24 inches. 
In order to test the effect of cutting back peach tribes 
at different heights at time of planting, the New 
.T(>rsey State Experiment Station undertook exjieri- 
liients in lOl.*! and 1914 with trees of different grades 
and two varieties. 
GR.VDING TREES.—Grades of nursery stock 
commonly offered for sale Avouhb include trees of 
%, Vi, %f %-inch caliiier. This indicates that 
%-inch difference in the diameter of the trunk com¬ 
monly constitutes a different grade. Each grade 
was divided into seven iiruning treatments as fol¬ 
lows: Not iiruned: cut to .‘lO-inch trunks; .SO-inch 
trunks; 24-inch trunks; IS-inch trunks; 12-inch 
trunks, and 0-inch trunks. Nursery trees of the 
Ellierta variety Avere selected the tirst year. One lot 
were trees that were dug in the Fall and stoi’ed in a 
large nursery store-house. The second lot were in¬ 
tended to be planted as freshly dug trees, but they 
became considerably dried out in transit and so 
they provided a test ujion trees that were driiMl 
out iirevious to planting. 
RESULTS IN 191 .“I.—.\inong the stored trees the 
%-inch grade made the best growth, considering tlu^ 
average of all the ]n-uning treatments, and the %- 
inch trees made the ]>oor(‘st growth. The %-inch 
trees Avere almost as good as the %-inch. Of the 
A’arious jirnning treatminits, the trees iiruned to ,‘10- 
inch trunks Avhen set made the best average groAvth, 
while the trees ]»rnned to IS-inch trunks made the 
])oorest gro’wth. The results Avith the dried-out 
nursi'ry trees AA'ere slightly different. Only 
of the %-inch trees Avere alive at the close of the 
season, and 7S% of the %-inch grade. All of the 
%-inch trees livcal, and they made the best average 
groAvth of any grade in this lot. They Avere closely 
folloAved in rank by tbe %-inch grade. This exper¬ 
iment clearly demonstrated that small trees suffer 
more seA’erely AA'hen they are allOAved to become dry 
before planting. The .‘10-inch pruning treatment 
made the best aA^erage growth in this lot of trees, 
while the trees “not pruned” made the poorest av¬ 
erage growth. 
ENPERIMENTS IN 1914.—The same experiment 
Avas repeated in 1914 Avith trees of the Belle of 
Georgia variety secured freshly dug from a local 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
nursery and immediately planted. The trees of the 
%-inch grade made the best average groAvth in 
1914, folloAved by the %-inch trees, the poorest av¬ 
erage groAA’th being made by the %-inch grade. The 
lot of trees Avith the trunks cut to 30 inches made 
the best average growth of any of the pruning 
treatments, Avhile those AA’ith trunks pruned to 18 
inches made the poorest, aA'erage growth. These re¬ 
sults agree AA’ith tho.se AA'hich Avere obtained Avith 
the stored stock planted in 1913. One might readily 
believe that there Avould be a I’egular ascending or 
descending scale of groAA’th from the six-inrii treat¬ 
ment to the not-pruned treatment, but such w.as not 
the case in a single instance. The 18 and 24-inch 
treatments tended to give the pooi’e.'-t I’l'sults. and 
it AA’as of interest to find the reason for this. 
DEVELOPMENT OF THEE.—Examinations Avcre 
made to determine the number of branches Avliich 
dev’eloped along the trunk at each six-inch s])ace, 
and it Avas noted that A’ery fcAA* liranches tendial to 
form at the 12 to IS-inch space upon the larger 
trees. In fact some trees failed to develop branch¬ 
es Avithin six inches of the to)*, leaving a dead stub 
above the point Avhere the branches deA'bloped. 'riiis 
indicated that the cause might be c-orrected Avith 
the develoimient of buds and branches as they oc¬ 
curred upon the nursery trees. Examinations 
.shOAved that the 12-18 inch space upon one-year-old 
peach trees, e.specially of the % to %-inch grades, 
AA’as a point of vigorous {('oniimn'd on- page 328.) 
The Culture of the Blueberry 
The Infancy of a Great Business 
AMING WILD THING.'’^.—f'an you imagine the 
first American Avho dug up wild plants of straAA’- 
berry or ra.spberry and started to tame thcni in gar- 
Nursery-tree, Showing Well-formed Buds which Did Not Make 
Branches. Fig. 120 
(leu culture? It probably seemed to his neighbors 
and friends such a foolish Avaste of time to culti¬ 
vate these plants Avhen the Avoods and fields Avere 
alive Avith hardy plants Avhich grcAV like Aveeds. 
Y(‘t that first plant tamer, AvluAever he AA’as, per¬ 
severed. He selected and planted and cultivated 
until AA’hat seemed like a foolish and useless en- 
terjirise greAA' into a A’ast and necessary business. 
One by one our cultivated fruits have been brought 
in from the Avilderness against the protest of Na¬ 
ture and man and put at Avoi-k. After a struggle 
these Avild things put on the harness of civilization 
and helped pull mankind nearer to comfort and 
profit. Noav another of these Avild things is being 
taken out of the sAvainps and put into the garden. 
This is the blueberry. We may uoav see the be¬ 
ginning of a business AA’hich is lik«dy to change the 
history of a State, or at least one section of it. 
.V WOMAN’S WORK.—At the last meeting of the 
Niov .Tersey State Ilorticultnral Society Miss Eliza¬ 
beth C. White of New Lis1>on made a full statement 
of her Avork Avith blueberries. It is one of the most 
interesting stories of horticultural development ever 
giA’cn in this country. We are told that if one is to 
do great Avork in any line, one must be born and 
trained for it, for there are few cases of accident 
in great achieA’ement. The truth of this seems to be 
demonstrated in the case of Miss White. It seems 
that cranberry and blueberi*y plants, Avhile dissim¬ 
ilar in habit (one a traliing vine, the other a tall 
bush) belong to the same botanical family. Miss 
March 3, 1917. 
White may be called a cranberry groAver by inher¬ 
itance. Mox’e than CiO years ago her gi'andfather, 
.Tames A. FeiiAvick, began experimenting Avith cul- 
tiAmting cranberries. He Avas one of the pioneers 
in this Avork of taming the cranberry and putting it 
in harness. At the time of Mr. FeiiAAdck’s death in 
1882 he had developed 40 acres of cranbcrrie.s. Tbe 
care of them fell to 3Iiss White’s father, ,Tos(*iih .1. 
White. Avho lias carried on Mr. FenAvick's Avoi-k un¬ 
til he has now the largest bog in the A\-orld. 
FATHER AND D-VUGllTER.—It is no accnhmt 
that the granddaugliter of this pioneer in cranberry 
culture Avas led to ado]tt another wildling and lay 
the foundation for AA’hat lu’omises to be an CA’en 
greater business than cranberry groAving. Miss 
White became a comrade to her father. They Avere 
together at the bog Avhenever possilde. The girl 
came to know all the details of the cranberry cul¬ 
ture, and took an active ]iart in tbe business. 
Among other things this gaA’e her a Avide and friend¬ 
ly acquaintance Avith the people of tin? “piney” 
country who inck; cranberries, and in their season 
go after Avild huckleberries. This acquaintance 
]iroved of great value to her later—as Ave shall see. 
^liss White says that she and her father often dis¬ 
cussed the possibility of cultivating the swamp 
huckleberry. They sampled berries and Avent from 
Imsh to bush after various siiecimens. Only uoav 
and then could they find a bush AVith ben-ies of 
good size and with the desired “peachy’’ flavor. 'J'be 
great majority of the fruit Avould be too sour, too 
fiat and tasteles.s, or too small to be of any com¬ 
mercial value, so they decided that it Avas hardly 
Avorth AA’hile to .start, esjiecially since they did not 
know how to propagate uoav i>lants fixAin desirable 
bushes. 
.V LESSON FROM THE APPLE.—Of course, Avhen 
you come to think of it, this same thing Avould liaA’e 
been true of se(‘dling ajiples. We may imagine .some 
dreamer or Avise man starting out years ago to find 
desirable A’arieties Avith AA’hich to begin apjde cul¬ 
ture. Tlie Avoods of Ncav England Avere full of seed¬ 
ling trees, but thousands must be tested and tried 
before BaldAA’in or Rhode Island Greening Avere 
found by chance. Ilvidently the Avild Idueberry va¬ 
ried as greatly in character and habit as the staal- 
ling apple trees scattered through fields and Avoods. 
Profitable cultiA’ation Avas possible only through 
finding the best plants and learning Iioav to pmpa- 
gate from them. .Vs Miss White s'ays—Avhen the 
best hnckleberry bush among seA’eral million has 
been located in some .Tersey SAvamj) and trans- 
plant«‘d the fruit lamomes the aristocnitic blue¬ 
berry. 
THE SCJENTLST .8TEPS IN.—In 1911 Miss 
White read a bulbuiu by Prof. F. ('. Coville on “Ex¬ 
periments in Blueberry Uulture’’ Avhich gaA’e her an 
One of the Cultivated Blueberries. Fig. 121 
entirely ueAV vieAV' of the berry and its needs. As 
she says: 
NeA’er before had I knoAA’ii that the soil of our bogs 
Avas acid, as Avas the Avater of our streams, that it Ava.s 
this which made our bog Avater broAVU, as in acid water 
the humus is held in solution {Continued on poye 3.i0.) 
