HOW TO GROW PEACHES 
The growing of peach trees has been a specialty with us for many years, and we use 
every care and precaution to have these trees healthy and true to name. We spare no 
expense to get the best seed obtainable. We are particularly fortunate in being so situated 
that we can readily obtain buds from the best strains of bearing trees, which we do fre¬ 
quently to keep our stock pure and free from disease. 
HINTS ON SOIL AND CARE OF TREES. Peaches can be grown on a great variety 
of soils with varying success; but in selecting an orchard site we prefer one that has lain 
idle for years with soil both dry and strong. If the soil is not fertile to start with, it can 
be enriched as the trees grow. Land that will produce fifty bushels of corn per acre 
would, with thorough cultivation, bring a peach orchard to a bearing age in vigorous 
condition. Worn out land can be made profitable peach land, if a liberal use is made of 
wood ashes, or a mixture of ground animal bone and muriate of potash. Land of interme¬ 
diate fertility should be treated as the condition requires, using more or less fertilizer as 
may be needed to induce a moderate wood growth. 
DISTANCE OF PLANTING must be governed by local conditions. On rich, heavy 
soil, trees should be planted 18 feet apart; on average land, 16 by 18 feet is about right, 
while on light land 16 by 16 feet will not be too close. A few orchard men are planting 
10 by 18 and 10 by 20 and after getting one or two crops cutting out every other 10 foot 
tree, this leaving the maturing trees ample space to develop in as well as doubling the yield 
of first crops. 
IT IS MOST IMPORTANT that the young trees should be properly pruned at the time 
of planting. All side branches should be cut back to within a half-inch of the main stem, 
this stem itself being cut back at about two thirds the distance from the ground. Small 
trees should be pruned to a whip, cutting back the stem very nearly one-half the way to 
the ground. Afterward all sprouts should be removed except just what are wanted for 
the new top of the tree. After this it will be necessary to prevent the tops getting too 
dense, as a result from using too much manure or too severe pruning, by thinning out part 
of the new growth. 
THOROUGH CULTIVATION is of much more importance than fertilization, and is 
indispensable to success. After an orchard has reached bearing age its condition must be 
an index to after treatment. A moderate growth only is required. An excessive growth 
of wood and foliage should be avoided, and this can usually be regulated by withholding 
fertilizer and cultivation. The beginner will soon discover that on rich land, trees with 
excessively dense foliage will not produce brilliant colored fruit of fine flavor; but on poor 
land some of the luxuriant growth will be desirable and can be induced by liberal broadcast 
application of fertilizer. Phosphoric acid, potash and clover are best for light or sandy 
land, which is usually deficient in potash. We have found wood ashes to be a most com¬ 
plete fertilizer for peach trees, but if some nitrogen is needed to induce more wood growth, 
a good grade of bone or tankage is always in order to use, giving both nitrogen and phos¬ 
phoric acid. Avoid the use of dissolved rock in combination with wood ashes, but otherwise 
its use gives a cheap source of phosphoric acid and with muriate of potash gives a very 
good fertilizer. 
BORERS. The best method of caring for the borers is as follows: Mound up with 
earth to the height of eight or ten inches the first of June, and leave in this condition till 
after October 1st, then withdraw the mound and if any borers are present (which may be 
known by the gummy exudation filled with sawdust), dig them out with a knife or other 
sharp pointed instrument. Coating bark with lime-sulphur wash before mounding will also 
help. 
MUCH MIGHT BE SAID about the fruit and marketing, but this would require a 
volume. The most important point is not to allow a tree to overbear. Thin the fruit to 
make it better and the trees live longer. 
SMALL TREES. It is not always that the largest trees are the best. Medium sized 
trees are taken up with plenty of roots—nearly all the roots the tree ever had—and are 
not seriously checked when transplanted. 
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