Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-02-02
A New Plan for Protecting Peach

Trees In Winter.
The following exceedingly interesting
paper was read by DR.. John A. Warden
before the Cincinnati Horticultural So
oiety, at its last meeting, a few days since
BoLMER's PEACH oRoHARD-A NEW PLAN.
Having observed avery successful peach
grower, who had a good crop during the
past untoward season, presenting very fine
specimens quite lateinthe season, curiosity
WAS aroused to ascertain the cause and
manner of his success amid the general
failure. An application to Mr.. Lewis
Bolmer, who resides in the Great Miami
Valley, has been very kindly responded
to by him in a most volumnious manu-
script, from which the following import
ant data have been carefully selected and
collated, in the belief that they cover the
important facts, and these are certainly
quite startling, as the results of praise
worthy efforts, rather blindly pursued, it
is true, but with a determination that was
bound to succeed:
Mr.. Bolmer was obliged to struggle with
poverty and with many difficulties Incl
dent thereto, but he had determined that
he would have peaches, if they could be
obtained by dint Of p~erseveFing expert
ments. He seems to have commenced
some twenty-seven years ago with fifteen
trees that were presented to him. These
he planted on the land of another person,
which he was then occupying. The first
season they were all treated alike. The
next year he mulched six Of them with
straw. Around one of these he dug a
trench, which he filed with manure, and
then mulched with straw. The remainder
we're kept clean with a hoe, and banked up
with earth to the height of ak or eight
inches, making a mound q foot in diameter.
This proved almost an entire preventive of
the peach worm, though these insects were
plenty in the trees that were muiched.
The third y ar these nine trees bore con-
siderable fruit, while those under straw.
though full OF blossoms, dropped all their
fruit, except seven peaches Of the tree
that had been surrounded by the ditch.
This made him hesitate as to the efficacy
of the mulching system, at least without
the root pruning. At this point in his
experiments the property changed hands
and he was obliged TO abandon his trees,
TO seek a home elsewhere, and begin anew.
That winter the severity of the frost
killed the five trees that had had been
mulched, and the wner not approaching
their value, and considering peaches a
nuisance" allowed Mr.. Bolmer to move
the remainder from his land to the "new
purchase The root pruned tree is re-
ported to have escaped the frost as well or
better than the others, therefore he was
encouraged to experiment further with
this expensive plan and bitches were dug
across the lot; some were filed with stone,
some with rotten wood and logs. In
some places the ditch was Ave feet or more
in depth across the orchard, and at inter-
walls of eight feet holes were dug like
wells, four feet deeper these were care
fully covered with stones to keep them
open, like dry wells, to perfect the drain
age. The trains were nearly filled up
with horns, bones, tanbark, stones and
manure of different kinds of q cost of
from four to five dollars a rod.
With all this outlay, after eight or ten
years, Mr. Blomer appears to have had no
very encouraging results until he observed
that where his mounds were increased in
size and hight he had most fruit, and that
this was in direct proportion to their size.
When they were but eight inches, the in-
sects would work in and affect his trees, so
he made them larger and higher, a foot
and eighteen inches, but still the worms
would trouble him, and would affect the
body of the tree. To overcome this he in
creased the mound in one tree to three
feet, and in another between four and five
feet high, SO that it covered the branches
above the forks. This was done seventeen
years age, and the tree, not twenty-one
years old, has never had the mark of a
worm upon it. In some oasss-as a pre-
lection from thawing and freezing-he has
wrapped the stems with rags, in some sur
rounding them with walls of stone or
boxes, or lumber, into which he filed the
earth; at cost of fifty cents to a dollar
and a half each tree, but none of these
plans proved 80 good, cheap and durable
as the simple mounds of earth.
This method has so entirely satisfied
him with its results that Mr.. Blomer now
has an orchard of some thirteen hundred
trees. of different ages, up to nine years,
all Of which are subject to a similar treat
ment. Some were earthed up the first
year they were set out, others at a later
period, some at the fourth year. Twelve
hundred of these t ees have borne fruit,
and have given four crops in five years
In 1854 they only fruited where they were
protected by boxes, or by other means.
The crop last season, 1885, produced more
than 81 5000.
In setting out his trees, Mr.. Bolmer
plants shallow. In light coils, that are
sandy and gravelly, he digs the holes a
foot deep IN light loan, six inches; in
heavy clay he plants on the surface, IN
less it be on a hillside, when he makes a
slight excavation; in wet places, or hol-
lows, he raises the ground a foot or more
for the tree before planting the trees are
all surrounded with mounds of earth
this applies to all sorts of fruit, and while
1t protects them from the frosts and winds
of winter, it also dsters the rabbits from
i~njuring the bark.
The branches ere formed at two feet
high, which is the top of the first mound.
The second year this IL raised another
foot covering the lower parts ofthe limbs,
and making The hillock three feet high.
No other protection is needed, as the *
tremes of wet or dry, heat or cold, are
regulated by this mass of earth, if it be
properly made, and kept smooth and sharp
the top. The worm cannot gain access,
and neither mar nor beast can injure the
nor split down the branches, neither
Cah Iue WIN ptoW INC tree over. Inc
third and fourth years the mound is made
still larger, SO that when finished they will
be between four and five feet high. ,
For older trees-if more than three or
our yesrs-he advises cutting back pretty
as a preparation for this earthing
process, which is aided very much by !
both ways towards the rows, thus
preparing the soil, and leaving SO much
ess work for the shovel. {
In this case mulching should be freely !
to protect the roots from the sun.
The work may be done at any time when g
he ground is not frozen or the tree laden @
With fruit, and even then if the earth be
'rought to the tree from beyond theroots. t
This banking up of the soil exposes tito $
he action of the frost, and it is thought 4
hat the mounds freeze solid to the tree,
nd remain frozen until spring, especially s
: well mulched, and the buds are kept @
ack until late in the spring, and escape
ntimely frosts. It is claimed for this
Ian, also, that there is a vastly increased
lrface exposed to ths heat and air for
heir happy influence. 1t is found that 9
ne earth is literally filed with fine fbrous II
roots by the third or fourth year,
.hich are ready to make the most of the a
situation" u