The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-03
BILLIONS OF PEACHES.
SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN TURNING
 OUT THE CROP.

Which One Acre Is Made to Produc' | as Much Four Acres Formerly Yielded
 The peach crop of the United States will amount this year to about 75,000,- | 600 bushels. It is the fruit on which this country brides itself most, and re- gently the giantic industry it represents has been transformed by the introduc- tion of various new and scientific
 ideas. Most important among these Is an intensive method of culture, by
 which one acre is made to yield more than used to be obtained, recokned in
 bushels, from four times that area. It is in Michigan that this idea has
 been carried farthest, it's most essen
 tial requirement. (apart from careful
 tillage and rigid pruning) being well
 nigh ruthless thinning of the fruits on
 each tree. To the old fashioned grow
 CT the notion of cutting off three
 fourths of the peaches just when they
 are beginning to develop seems absurd
 and even outrageous, yet in this way
 many more bushels are actually obtain
 ed than would be produced if there was
 no such interference and the individ-
 ual peaches are very much finer, bring
 ing a far higher price in the market
 By such means a maximum of ten
 bushels to a tree, or 500 bushels to the
 acre, are secured.
 Now, this is business, and of a. kind
 to atonish the planters of the old
 oINo f
 is that the number of seeds, i. e., peach
 stones, produced is only onefourth of
 the normal, and inasmuch as their de-
 velopment is the greatest of all drains
 upon the vitality of the tree (using up
 incidentally large quantities of potash and phosphoric acid from the soiD, a
 profitable saving is effected. Inci-
 dentally, regularity of yield from sea son to season is promoted.
 The greatest enemy of the peach
 grower is frost. A peach tree is a born
 fool, and on the slightest provocation in the way of warmth it permits it's
 buds to expand, in the mistaken notion
 that gentle spring has arrived. Then comes cold weather, and it is nipped, with disastrous financial results to the pioiltci' l1oNI soulli lillS hlilu pl lIilo- chief is even worse than in the north, because of the warm spells that arrive during the winter.
 It has been ascertained that trouble of the sort may be mitigated to a con- siderable extent by spraying the twigs and buds with a solution of whitewash, the effect being to hold back the buds. Being white, the buds and twigs thus coated reflect the suns rays, instead of absorbing them, and, their tempera- ture being not perceptibly raised, ripe ming Is retarded. In cold attitudes the trees are sometimes bent over horizon tally close to the ground during the winter and covered with straw or earth to protect them.
 This is an age of increasing luxury, and people nowadays are willing to pay almost any price for exceptionally choice fruit. In winter as much as $1 apiece is often paid for peaches and gardeners in this country are trying to introduce some of the intensive horti- cultural methods of Europe In France and England peach trees are commonly trained flat against walls with southern exposures or on trellises a foot or so away from the wall, and al the branch es are cut away except few, which are compelled to assume certain pat terms, frequently geometrical Then most of the shoots are cut off as soon as set, only a dozen; or possibly a score, being allowed to develop. A peach tree thus treated is nothing like a tree, but the few peaches that mature upon it al 1F ,,,xx v,1 J,,; ;n; Half a dozen of them in a cotton lined basket fetch s6 to $8.
 The peach tree seems to have come from China originally, being introduce ed into Europe by way of Persia This year there are 291 recognized varieties on the market in this country, some new strains having been introduced di- l rectly from China. Just as cultural methods have improved, so varieties of superiority have gained prominence, and there is no question | that our best peaches to-day are far superior to any that were obtainab ble | fifteen or twenty years ago. The aver Y. age size Is much increased, for one thing.
 The peach season in the north has | been greatly heightened by the intro | duction of southern peaches, largely | from Georgia, the shipment of which | to northern markets has been rendered | and profitable by the mod ern refrigerator car At the present l time immense tracts in Georgia are oc- cupied by peach orchards. single one of which packs and ships more than ,00o bushels a day in the busy season. These orchards may be said to repre- sent the "extensive" method of peach culture, as opposed to the intensive" Tn July. which is their busy month, they employ veritable armies of laborers, md on each plantation is a big pack