Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-03-13
FIRM HINTS.
Some suggestions to Owners of Peach Orchards.
Other a gricultural Topics Illuminated
by Late Researches.

So'he suggestions 10 owners Of Peach Orchards.
other Agricultural Topics Illuminated
by Late Researches.
From the Country Gentleman.
The fruit buds of the peach are killed by
the cold weather through large portions of
several states and entirely throughout some.
But adverse occurrences may be often turned
to advantage, and among them the destruc-
ton of the peach buds. In favorable years
the trees are often, we may say generally,
allowed to overbear. Occasionally the
branches are broken with the heavy weight,
and always the fruit is much inferior in quail
ity. The over crop exhausts tho vigor of the
trees, and they are enfeebled for years.
Nothing, besides good cultivation, can do
such trees more good than year of rest.
Owners should take advantage of the oppor-
tunty. They need not make the common
mistake of stunning the necessary prunin
In abundant seasons, because they cannot
afford to lop oil masses of fruit buds They
can now shorten in the branches and bring
the trees into handsome shape. They can
thin out small side-shoots wherever they are
growing too thickly. They will understand
that this work is to be done early in spring
before the buds open, although the peach
suffers less than some other fruit trees if the
pruning happens to be done two OF three
days after the swelling of the buds.
Peach orchards require the application of
yard manure much less than most other fruit
trees; yet if the soil is quite poor and the
trees have been stunted by overbearing in
previous years, thin top-dressing over the
whole surface will impart vigor to the shoots
aud darker green to the leaves. On most
soils top-dressing of ashes is a positive
benefit Supcrpbosphato is also beneficial on
many kinds of soil. But generally pothingis is
equal To clean, mellow, shallow cultivation.
Whatever the soil, treatment ald growth,
the trees should not be crowded together,
If freedom from rot would be avoided, and
line, ruddy, well ripened and delicious fruit
Is an object Some planters place the trees
twenty feet apart tor this reason but this
distance is not necessary if the branches are
regularly shortened in, and the trees kept in
sufficiently compact and symmetrical form.
Now that there is little fear of interfering
with the crop, the trees may be brought into
the best shape.
Vitality of Buried Seed. .... g..
1t is well known that seeds buried so deep
In the soil as to be entirely beyond the reach
of atmospheric influences will remain dor
mant long time but just how long has not
been determined. writer in the London
Gardca gives an interesting instance of long
vitality. Some fifty years ago, 2 bed was
made of peat soil for planting rhodOden-
drons, brought from an adjacent locality.
Last year these old rhododendrons We're
grubbed up, to be replaced with new and
better sorts. The old peat soil was turned
over, the bottom portion being brought to the
surface FoXgloves grew abundantly ON the
places where the peat was originally OBJ
tanned ; and laSt season the newly planted
bed was covered with thick crop of seed
ling foNgloves. We have witnessed some
less striking cases. An old pasture was
plowed deeply in spring, and allowed to re-
main as summer followed in which condi-
tion 1t became covered with dense growth
of foxtai grass. Another pasture, on being
similarly plowed III subsequent year, gave
full crop of pig-weeds The time during
which these fields had remained in pasture
was not known, but it was at least several
years Some ignorant persons absurdly in
sisted that these weeds came up spontane-
ously without seeds Had the foxglove and
other seeds remained above ground, they
would have much sooner lost their vitality.
Planting Peach Stones.
Samuel Miller says that peach stones spread
on the ground two inches thick, before win
ter, and covered about the same thickness
with mellow soil, will keep well through
winter; and in spring those which do not
open and sprout, may be cracked and put into
shallow boxes of earth or sawdust, the latter
preferable, and covered one inch He says
they will come up thick as the hair on a
dogs back, and when an inch or two high
may be set out in rows three or four inches
apart, the rows three feet asunder.
Cultivation and Drouth.
Robert Johnston gives an illustration of the
value of mellow aud cultivated soil for pre-
serving moisture in drouth. portion of his
ground was full of weed seeds, and to give
the strawberries and vegetables fair chance
he had to keep up constant cultivation.
The season was very dry and 50 great was
the contrast between this portion of his gar
den and the rest, that persons who passed
and saw the difference, would hardly be-
lieve that it was not in consequence Of the
mellow and cultivated portion being wa
tered, although no water was given to It,
Sprouting Hickory Nuts.
Vermont paper describes the manner by
which hickory nuts which had been drying
all winter were made TO grow. Under ordi-
nary treatment the young sprout would
never reach the outside of the dried and har-
dened shell. Each nut was placed in a vice
and the screw cautiously turned till the shell
was heard to crack--but not breaking open
then dropped into water three or four days,
| them grew.
Peach Grub.
Prof. Cook thinks that the kerosene and
soap mixture, placed under ground and close
to the tree will kill the peach grub; but he
states hat carbolic acid and soap will GER
taiuly do it. Ashes will not prevent the lay
ing Of the eggs. The course which we have
for many years adopted is to examine the
trees in spring, and again early in autumn,
their presence, and follow them with the point
oi the knife to the end of their burrows, where
they are destroyed at once On the whole
we have found this the easiest and slirest way,
an active hand clearing several hundred trees
in day.