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Page 25
To learn the importance of rigorous and careful pruning, observe
the shoots of a vigorous peach-tree, say three or four years old.
These shoots or sprays are long and slender, lined with fruit-
buds. You will often find two fruit-buds together, with a leaf-bud
between them. If the fruit-buds have been uninjured by the winter,
they will nearly all form peaches, far more than the slender spray
can support or mature. The sap will tend to give the most support
to all growth at the end of the spray or branch. The probable
result will be that you will have a score, more or less, of
peaches that are little beyond skin and stones. By midsummer the
brittle sprays will break, or the limbs split down at the
crotches. You may have myriads of peaches, but none fit for market
or table. Thousands of baskets are sent to New York annually that
do not pay the expenses of freight, commission, etc.; while the
orchards from which they come are practically ruined. I had two
small trees from which, one autumn, I sold ten dollars' worth of
fruit. They yielded more profit than is often obtained from a
hundred trees.
Now, in the light of these facts, realize the advantages secured
by cutting back the shoots or sprays so as to leave but three or
four fruit-buds on each. The tree can probably mature these buds
into large, beautiful peaches, and still maintain its vigor. By
this shortening-in process you have less tree, but more fruit. The
growth is directed and kept within proper limits, and the tree
preserved for future usefulness. Thus the peach-trees of the
garden will not only furnish some of the most delicious morsels of
the year, but also a very agreeable and light phase of labor. They
can be made pets which will amply repay all kindness; and the
attentions they most appreciate, strange to say, are cutting and
pinching. The pruning-shears in March and early April can cut away
forming burdens which could not be borne, and pinching back during
the summer can maintain beauty and symmetry in growth. When the
proprietor of the Home Acre has learned from experience to do this
work judiciously, his trees, like the grape-vines, will afford
many hours of agreeable and healthful recreation. If he regards it
as labor, one great, melting, luscious peach will repay him. A
small apple, pear, or strawberry usually has the flavor of a large
one; but a peach to be had in perfection must be fully matured to
its limit of growth on a healthful tree.
Let no one imagine that the shortening in of shoots recommended
consists of cutting the young sprays evenly all round the trees as
one would shear a hedge. It more nearly resembles the pruning of
the vine; for the peach, like the vine, bears its fruit only on
the young wood of the previous summer's growth. The aim should be
to have this young bearing wood distributed evenly over the tree,
as should be true of a grape-vine. When the trees are kept low, as
dwarf standards, the fruit is more within reach, and less liable
to be blown off by high winds. Gradually, however, if the trees
prove healthful, they will get high enough up in the world.
Notwithstanding the rigorous pruning recommended, the trees will
often overload themselves; and thinning out the young peaches when
as large as hickory nuts is almost imperative if we would secure
good fruit. Men of experience say that when a tree has set too
much fruit, if two-thirds of it are taken off while little, the
remaining third will measure and weigh more than would the entire
crop, and bring three times as much money. In flavor and beauty
the gain will certainly be more than double.
Throughout its entire growth and fruiting life the peach-tree
needs good cultivation, and also a good but not overstimulated
soil. Well-decayed compost from the cow-stable is probably the
best barnyard fertilizer. Wood-ashes are peculiarly agreeable to
the constitution of this tree, and tend to maintain it in health
and bearing long after others not so treated are dead. I should
advise that half a peck be worked in lightly every spring around
each tree as far as the branches extend. When enriching the ground
about a tree, never heap the fertilizer round the trunk, but
spread it evenly from the stem outward as far as the branches
reach, remembering that the head above is the measure of the root
extension below. Air-slacked lime is also useful to the peach in
small quantities; and so, no doubt, would be a little salt from
time to time. Bone-meal is highly recommended.
Like other fruit-trees, the peach does not thrive on low, wet
ground, and the fruit-buds are much more apt to be winter-killed
in such localities. A light, warm soil is regarded as the most
favorable.
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