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Page 24
For the mysteries of hybridizing and raising new seedlings,
grafting, hot-house and cold grapery culture, the reader must look
in more extended works than this, and to writers who have had
experience in these matters.
We shall next consider three fruits which upon the Home Acre may
be regarded as forming a natural group-peaches, plums, and
raspberries, if any one expresses surprise that the last-named
fruit should be given this relationship, I have merely to reply
that the raspberry thrives in the partial shade produced by such
small trees as the peach and plum. Where there is need of economy
of space it is well to take advantage of this fact, for but few
products of the garden give any satisfaction when contending with
roots below and shade above.
We have taken it for granted that some grape-vines would be
planted in the two borders extending through the centre of the
garden, also that there would be spaces left which might be filled
with peach and plum trees and small flowering shrubs. If there is
to be a good-sized poultry-yard upon the acre, we should advise
that plums be planted in that; but we will speak of this fruit
later, and now give our attention to that fruit which to the taste
of many is unrivalled--the peach.
With the exception of the strawberry, it is perhaps the only fruit
for which I prefer spring planting. At the same time, I should not
hesitate to set out the trees in autumn. The ground should be
good, but not too highly fertilized. I prefer young trees but one
year old from the bud. If set out in the fall, I should mound up
the earth eighteen inches about them, to protect the roots and
stem, and to keep the tree firmly in the soil. With this
precaution, I am not sure but that fall planting has the greater
advantage, except when the climate is very severe and subject to
great alternations. Plant with the same care and on the same
principles which have been already described. If a careful system
of pruning is to be adopted, the trees may be set out twelve feet
apart; but if they are to be left to grow at will, which I regret
to say is the usual practice, they should be planted fifteen feet
from each other.
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. Under this slovenly treatment there is, of
course, rapid deterioration in the stamina of the peach. Pits and
buds are taken from enfeebled trees for the purpose of
propagation, and so tendencies to disease are perpetuated and
enhanced. Little wonder that, the fatal malady, the "yellows," has
blighted so many hopes! I honestly believe that millions of trees
have been sold in which this disease existed from the bud. If fine
peaches were bred and propagated with something of the same care
that is bestowed on blooded stock, the results would soon be
proportionate. Gardeners abroad often give more care to one tree
than hundreds receive here. Because the peach has grown so easily
in our climate, we have imposed on its good-nature beyond the
limits of endurance, and consequently it is not easy to get sound,
healthful trees that will bear year after year under the best of
treatment, as they did with our fathers with no care at all. I
should look to men who had made a reputation for sending out
sound, healthful stock grown under their own eyes from pits and
wood which they know to be free from disease. Do not try to save a
few pennies on the first cost of trees, for the probabilities are
that such economy will result in little more than the "yellows."
In large orchards, cultivated by horse-power, the stems of the
trees are usually from four to six feet high; but in the garden
this length of stem is not necessary, and the trees can be grown
as dwarf standards, with stems beginning to branch two feet from
the ground. A little study of the habit of growth in the peach
will show that, to obtain the best results, the pruning-shears are
almost as essential as in the case of the grape-vine. More than in
any other fruit-tree, the sap tends strongly toward the ends of
the shoots. Left to Nature, only the terminal buds of these will
grow from year to year; the other buds lower down on the shoots
fail and drop off. Thus we soon have long naked reaches of
unproductive wood, or sucker-like sprouts starting from the bark,
which are worse than useless. Our first aim should be to form a
round, open, symmetrical head, shortening in the shoots at least
one-half each year, and cutting out crossing and interlacing
branches. For instance, if we decide to grow our trees as dwarf
standards, we shall cut back the stems at a point two feet from
the ground the first spring after planting, and let but three buds
grow, to make the first three or leading branches. The following
spring we shall cut back the shoots that have formed, so as to
make six leading branches. Thereafter we shall continue to cut out
and back so as to maintain an open head for the free circulation
of air and light.
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