The Florida agriculturist., 1889-01-02


twenty-five pounds of potash, eleven
pounds of phosphoric acid, fifty-two
pounds of lime and seven pounds of mag
nesia; and the fruit has in it per ton,
fifty-two pounds OF potash, eleven pounds
of phosphoric acid, two pounds of lime
and six pounds of magnesia; and | will
add, as one of the other elements, twenty
pounds of silica. Well, we can scurry
around and find the sand without much
trouble, but the other substances cost
money. All there is of it, the man who
expects to make money from peach
orchard must first use money upon it,
and the planter who starts without plan
will lose money in place of making it.
My plan is, with this poor soil, as a
starter, to all the time keep my trees
supplied with all the manure they want,
all they will take up, only so it is of the
right kind. From this analysis we can
get at what chemical substances our trees
require, but there are other substances
that must be used to act on these inor-
ganic substances to make them soluble
so the little rootlets can take them up.
To us Liebig remarks: Create in your
soils an artificial atmosphere of carbonic
acid gas and ammonia" Hardwood ashes
contain all these chemical substances, vet
without anything to create this 'sarti-
fetal atmosphere" Unless we use q little
part of those elements that in procuring
that wood ash have been driven off
in smoke to the sun and air from whence
they came, there will be little action from
the ashes. They are dormant substances
and cannot act without the aid of some
substance that will create ammonia, and
mind you not too much of it either; for
in my experiments | have gotten very
rapid growth of tree by placing, at plant
ing, after the roots had been lightly
covered, two shovels of fresh horse ma
nure CHAT is so largely of ammonia) on
top, and filing up the hole with earth on
top of it. AS before said, the tree for the
first four months made a wonderful
gss,Sn%%t h and then died.
To trees newly planted three or four
pounds of ashes, or pound of sulphate
of potash, and one-half pound of cotton
seed meal, or the same of tankage, is, |
think, good start. The meal or tank
age should be applied, say in the small
way twice more during the season, for
best results. Our lands are so lacking in
humus that am all the time trying, by
culture, to build it up and add humus to
it so as to have base in our soil to
operate from. l am raking the pine
straw in the forest and mulching my
peach trees quite largely with it, for a
twofold purpose: it will help, hope, very
materially to retain moisture in the
spring at planting time when the tree so
much needs it; then as culture goes on
the straw is worked into the SOIL it soon
rots, and I must believe a cheap and
valuable source of manure supply is thus
obtained
Now l come to very important and
very much disputed question,
PRUNING THE PEACH TREE.
In all our peach-growing sectionsnorth
of us the peaches are of the Persian
strain. Their habits of growth are very
different from the strain which makes our
peaches here. They grow up with two or
three forks, which send out long, often
struggling limbs, with but few small limbs
inside; again, when the next seasons
growth comes that already long limb
goes on and on until it's fruit is set, when
it's weight often breaks and splits, till
have seen whole orchards ruined from be-
ing broken down in that way; and in all
those sections the practice is to cut Zone
half is the rule) off the previous seasons
Growth to "head in the tree" But here
in this almost tropical climate, and this
'een-to strain of peaches, don't do any
such thing.
l have MS. about ready for the
printer, ,-"The Peach in Florida" In the
chapter on pruning | have. tried to ex-
nIain thn cirnI11 q lion Of Tho con onJ IS