The daily gazette., 1879-05-09
FIFTH EDITION.
Letter from samuel Tewnss.1.
For the GAZETTE.

For the GAZETTE.
The newspaper reporters and city pa
pers, good, kind, windy souls, have set to
work again this spring, in their news
papers, to raise us peach growers rous-
ing crop Of peaches-several million
baskets. These fellows know about as
much about the peach tree and peach
growing as new negroes from Guinea
Some fellows say there are ten times too
many blossoms, and if last week was
little cold and made little ice, there
was very little frost. What stuff. Are
people so dumb as to suppose an atmos-
phere that makes ice, cannot make frost (?
And, when for few days previous, the
atmosphere was warm and sap beginning
to flow finely, then sudden check of 80
or 40 degrees. Now, if these would-be-
knowing fellows wish to find out some
thing tangible and sensible about peach
trees that are just out in bloom, let these
fellows take off their coats, waistcoats
and shirt Of warm afternoon, they may
be comfortable, and then let the weather
change that evening, which is often the
case, to make ice or light frost as they
call it, and these fellows stand out in
that weather, nearly naked, until
midnight, then they would be able to
discover that their sap or blood, would,
as the peach, nearly, or quite cease to
flow. These changes kill thousands of
blossoms, but the damage docs not stop
there.
1t affects the flow of sap in the small
twigs or branches of the tree that con-
tains the buds and, just as q person, those
it did not kill it would lay the founda-
ton for bad colds and consumption to
die some time afterwards, and just so with
peaches. If the small branches that
contain the blossoms are injured 80 as
to prevent full flow of sap, young
peaches may form and grow little for
month and then fall. What causes the
falling of young peaches is the disordered
state of the sap, and two or three days
of cold north or northeast rainy weather
is as bad as frost. OF course the three
frosts last week injured peaches to con-
siderable extent. Sunday and Monday
were favorable; but on Tuesday and up
to the time of writing this Thursday J
evening, it is colder than desirable for
peaches. The wind this evening has
changed round to the south, and q few
days of Saturdays weather would
strengthen the flow of sap. But all city
people and country gudeons may always
know when fruit trees of all kinds are
out in blossom. If fires have to be made
in house to keep comfortable 1t 10 too cold
out of doors for fruit blossoms. But
some people write about peach orchards
as if they lived as long and were as hardy
| as an oak maui.
1t is not the real observant peach
growers that misrepresent and are mis-.
taken, and mislead. 1t is mostly done by
set of squirts, who run around and
write sensational reports to city news
papers, and they in return print and cir.
culate these reports, often to the injury
of the peach growers, by making the
city people believe peaches will be un.
commonly cheap and a drug;and when the
first peaches are offered for sale, and price
asked according to what the crop is like.
ly to be, hundreds of people turn away
from the market without buying for a
few days, until they find out they have
been deceived by the lies in the news
papers. All this time peaches are ripen
ing and rottening in the market to the
injury of the growers. The railroa,
men often make great blunders in ano
ther way Of estimating crops. The,
write to their agents to report how man,
trees in bearing, and then rate SO man,
to tree, when thousands of trees ar
dead or dying, or little or no fruit OF
| them. In about one month the peacf
growers will hold meeting and abou
that time tolerable correct idea can b.
formed and not much soone.
SAMUEL TOWNSEND.
Townsend, May 9th, 1877.