Peach orchard

“ My success with it has far outstripped my expectations; and I pronounce a peach orchard of this size, planted and cultivated as it can be, and will be, by an intelligent man not essentially lazy, as the sheet anchor of his safety. I was careful to plant none but small trees, because such can be removed from the nursery with greater safety than large ones, while the roots are less multiplied, and thus receive fewer injuries; neither are they liable to be displaced by high winds before acquiring a firm foothold in the ground. ”

“ Chiefly, these are men more accustomed to the other tree-fruits—most of which make a fair showing without pruning—than to the peach. The peach can go a few years unpruned without becoming an abnormal orchard-specimen but left to itself to the prime of life without the reinvigorating and form-giving knife a peach-orchard becomes a woeful spectacle. ”

“ Thorough drainage is indispensable for the peach, on all but very light, porous soils: with such drainage, peaches will do best on soil best adapted to growing corn and potatoes. Bones, bonedust, lime, ashes, stable-manure, and charcoal, are the best applications to the soil of a peach-orchard. Whoever grows peaches should put at least half a bushel of fine charcoal in the earth in which he sets each tree. Mix it well with the soil, and the tree will grow better, and the fruit be larger and finer, for a dozen years. ”

“ Growers in the State long ago learned that it is an up-hill task to grow the peach in land not thoroughly fitted at the start. Usually the land is prepared a year in advance by putting in a hoed crop, after which it is plowed deeply in the fall, pulverized thoroughly in the spring and then planted as promptly as possible. Fall-planting is not practicable because of severe losses following from winter-killing.
The peach-orchard is usually laid out in meridians and parallels in New York at intervals of 18 by 18 or 20 by 20 feet, the former requiring 134 and the latter 108 trees. ”

“ As the fruit increases in size and weight, support those branches that require it by placing strong saplings with a fork at the top (like a clothes prop) under them. To prevent the wood getting bruised, wrap a piece of old bagging round where the fork rests. The peach can be raised from seed, though it is as well when planting an orchard to get good grafted trees from some first class nursery.
Bone dust, lime and wood ashes, with stable litter and leaf mould are the best manure for the trees. ”

“ Hardee's a matter of congratulation is that they furnish to purchasers things that have been proved suited to the 182 climate and soil of Florida. Peach-trees, roses, and grapes, sent from the North, bring here the habit of their Northern growth, which often makes them worthless. With a singular stubbornness, they adhere to the times and seasons to which they have been accustomed farther North. We set a peach-orchard of some four hundred trees which we obtained from a nursery in Georgia. ”

“ Of all fruit-trees, pruning is most used with the peach in regulating the development of the tree. In its early years, we may almost say that the peach "lives by the knife." At all stages of growth the vigorous use of the knife is indispensable in keeping the peach in proper bounds, and yet, rather paradoxically, knife and saw must be used sometime or other in the life of every peach-orchard to stimulate growth or at least to force out new growths. ”

“ By delaying winter-pruning until danger of winter-killing is passed many growers save labor in summer-thinning, since, as early as this, fruit-prospects are fore-shadowed.
It is interesting to record that peach-orchards are never top-grafted in New York though it seems to be a matter of rather frequent practice in the South and far West. There are plenty of occasions for working over peach-trees in this State; as, when poor varieties are substituted, or in changes in fashion in peaches, or on finding a variety poorly adapted to orchard-conditions. ”

“ In the matter of fertilizers, the peach-grower early learns humility. He is no sooner certain that his trees must be fertilized and that he has at last hit upon the right formula than his check plats or his neighbor's orchard convince him that he is not getting the worth of his money in fertilizers. In eastern New York, peach-orchards are very generally fertilized and rather heavily, the amounts and formulas being nearly as diverse as the men applying them. In western New York, commercial fertilizers are comparatively little used in peach-orchards. ”

“ Blood Cling is the favorite curiosity of the peach-orchard and as such we accord it a color-plate and a full description in The Peaches of New York. Unfortunately, the beet-red color of the flesh could not be reproduced with sufficient accuracy to make the attempt satisfactory. It is a pleasant peach to eat out of hand and is much used for pickling and preserving, for which purposes it has real merit. The round-headed, compact tree might make the variety a desirable parent in breeding new peaches. ”

“ The consequence is, that year after year, when all nature about them is bursting into leaf and blossom, when peaches of good size gem the boughs of Florida trees, our peach-orchard stands sullen and leafless; nor will it start bud or blossom till the time for peaches to start in New York. The same has been our trouble with some fine varieties of roses which we took from our Northern grounds. As yet, they are 183 hardly worth the ground they occupy; and whether they ever will do any thing is a matter of doubt. ”

“ There are many good reasons why the common orchard culture of the peach should not be adopted in the garden. There is no fruit more neglected and ill-treated than the beautiful and delicious peach. The trees are very cheap, usually costing but a few cents each; they are bought by the thousand from careless dealers, planted with scarcely the attention given to a cabbage-plant, and too often allowed to bear themselves to death. The land, trees, and cultivation cost so little that one good crop is expected to remunerate for all outlay. If more crops are obtained, there is so much clear gain. ”

“ But to return to peaches; our only chance for a long time has been to plant young trees every year or two, and we scarcely secured a crop more than once in three years. Even then the yellows often destroyed the trees before they were old enough to bear much. They are doing far better of late along the Hudson, and there is good prospect that this region will become the greatest peach-growing locality in the country."
"I'm sure you are right," assented Webb, "and I think it will pay us to plant largely in the spring. I don't suppose you ever saw a peach-orchard in England, Amy?" ”

“ Year in and year out, tillage is the most costly ingredient in the making of a good peach-orchard. It consists of plowing once a year, fall or spring, and harrowing on the average at least ten times a season. High cost of labor brings this item up to $10.00 per acre which includes seeding the cover-crop but not the cost of seed, for which an additional charge of $2.50 must be made for a combination crop of red clover and oats or of vetch and barley. ”

“ Again, peach-growing is a fine art and becomes thus a specialist's business that must be learned in the peach-orchard; therefore, even if soil and climate be favorable, the industry lags if it lacks leaders to teach and to set the pace in orcharding. But, outranking by far the agencies depending on man, are natural conditions, two of which, climate and soil, predetermined where peach-industries were to stand in New York. ”

“ Gradually as the trees get older more and more can be left till when it has reached maturity its strength is equal to a very heavy crop, though the peach always requires attention in the matter of rubbing off surplus fruit if in a climate that suits it. ”

“ In many localities where peaches have once been valuable they have ceased to produce with any regularity, which renders the planting of an orchard inadvisable. The principal danger in the peach tree is the too early blooming and the exposure of the tender fruit to late frosts. ”

“ Let us consider the cost of production in a ten-acre orchard. This unit is now, however, rather too small, for more and more growers are giving up general farming, finding peach-growing an exacting, full-time vocation. Often enough it is successfully combined with the growing of other fruits, but less and less so with the growing of farm-crops. The first item in cost of production is interest on investment. What value is to be placed on a New York peach-orchard? ”

“ How closely the ground itself may be crowded with plants is seen in Fig. 16, where a young peach orchard, whose tree tops were six feet through, planted in rows twenty-two feet apart, had also ten rows of cabbage, two rows of large windsor beans and a row of garden peas. Thirteen rows of vegetables in 22 feet, all luxuriant and strong, and note the judgment shown in placing the tallest plants, needing the most sun, in the center between the trees. ”

“ Standard sorts following are, Oldmixon Free, the only white-fleshed sort, and Crosby, Late Crawford, Kalamazoo, Chili, Smock and Salwey, these also named in order of maturity. A large number of new varieties are on probation in the State of which Arp, Lola, Edgemont, Rochester, J. H. Hale and Frances are now most conspicuous. The peach-flora changes rapidly and many of these favorites of today will be the cast-offs of tomorrow.
In the early life of the orchard, until bearing is well established, an inter-crop is a valuable asset in New York peach-orchards ”

“ Whole peaches planted when taken from the tree, or the pits planted before having become dry, are said to be much more certain to produce the same fruit. We know an instance in which the fruit of an early Crawford peach, thus planted, could not be distinguished from those that grew on a budded tree in the same orchard. One of the difficulties in reproducing the same from seed, is the great difficulty in getting the seed of any variety pure. We everywhere have so many varieties of fruit-trees in the same orchard, that the seeds of no one can be pure; they mix in the blossoms. ”

“ Its numerous reddish-brown veins make it a most beautiful wood but the trees seldom attain sufficient size to give the species value as a lumber-product.
The peach is attractive to the eye at all seasons. A tree or an orchard in bloom is a strikingly beautiful sight while a panorama in a peach-country in flowering-time is one of the most beautiful scenes in nature. There is a great difference in the floral beauty of varieties, some sorts having very inconspicuous flowers while others rank with our finest ornamentals when in bloom. ”

“ The Beech Tree had all sorts of seashore goods—shells, coral, postcards of watering places, little pails and shovels—all reminiscent of the beach.
The Ash Tree was, of course, the stand for cigars and ash trays, or other smokers’ utensils.
The candy was sold in a sugar-cane plantation, and refreshments were served in a thicket of trees called the Peach Orchard, because the pretty waitresses were said to be “Peaches!” ”

“ Peaches picked in the pleached alleys of a closely set orchard are few, small and poor in quality. Pride in appearance and convenience in working the trees make perfect alignment imperative. The peach readily self-pollinates so that interplanting varieties is not practiced, but, rather, for convenience in harvesting, varieties are set in solid blocks, growers seldom, nowadays, planting more than three or four sorts. Laying out the land, digging holes, trimming roots, setting trees are all kindergarten operations in fruit-growing, well understood by any one qualified to go into peach-growing. ”

“ The best success has come from certain colonies sent to Georgia. One of these, located at Marshallville, presents a most satisfactory outcome. This orchard contains some 17,000 peach trees, covering about 85 acres, and has lying immediately adjoining it a much larger orchard belonging to the same owner, containing 250,000 trees, all scatteringly infested with scale. The ladybirds were liberated in August, 1902, in the smaller orchard. An examination of this orchard in July, 1903, indicated that the beetles were rapidly spreading and that they would soon cover the smaller orchard. ”

“ I cultivate my orchard as long as the weeds grow, and plant a young orchard to corn, using a small cultivator and disc. Cease cropping after eight or nine years, and plant nothing in a bearing orchard. Windbreaks are essential; would make them of peach trees planted close together. I have pruned to shape trees, but do not prune at all now. I do not thin the fruit while on the trees. I fertilize my orchard with stable litter; I think it beneficial, and would advise its use on all soils. I do not pasture my orchard. My trees are troubled with tent-caterpillar, and my apples with curculio. ”

“ The few records that have come down through the ages do not enable us to form much of a picture of the primitive peach. But plants do not change quickly in China, for their orchard-cultivation is not as intensive nor selection as assiduously practiced as in western countries, so that we are warranted in assuming that cultivation for forty centuries has not greatly changed this fruit. Besides, it is probable that the wild forms, whether truly wild or reverted escapes from cultivation, now represent closely the original indigenous stocks of the peach. ”

“ After an Arctic night, in which they are frozen solid, a bright sun sends its rays into the warmest nooks, whence the wind is excluded, and wholly or partially thaws out the smaller trees; which are suddenly frozen solid again so soon as the sunshine is withdrawn; and this partly explains to my mind the fact that peach-buds are often killed in lower and level portions of an orchard, while they retain their vitality on the hill-side and at its crest, not 80 rods distant from those destroyed. ”