The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-08
HANDLING PEACH TREES.

Last week I wrote on the planting of the trees, but of course they cannot be planted until bought or provided for. This is also one of the importal mat ters to be observed in order to make the business a success. In fact, unless great care is exercised in the selection of the trees and unles they are properly handled the whole labor of preparing the soil and planting will prove a failure. and as stated before, failures in planting orch ards are expensive and cannot be in- dulged in. In fact there Is no excuse whatever for experimenting In this mat ter of planting orchards, for it has passed the experimental stage, by the example of many growers whose examples are worthy of being followed.
 I know that growers have been very in- different in the matter or buying trees, depending almost entirely what the nursery man had to say for their stocks, and supposing that most any or all trees offered for sale were all right and as good as represented. The best plan, where 1t is possible to do so, is for the farmer to go to some reliable home nursery and by the aid of the proprietor select his trees, culling close and throwing out all diseased stock and all ill-shaped trees. Be careful to select trees that have strong thrifty roots and bark. Any one ought to
 
 whether or not they are diseased or healthy.
 Then again, trees are subject to root di- : sease, root rot. and root knot or club root. All trees thus affected should be rejected Forked, and all ill-shaped trees too, should be rejected and nothing but | beautifully straight growing trees used Another mistake that many planters make Is in selecting large trees; these, 1t would | a at ffrGt fOhf frrh mo a a bearing orchard sooner than would small | Ter trees and may produce some fruit earl | fer, but in the end there Is nothing gain- ed by planting large trees. Good two- | year old trees are about the proper age and where well grown in the nursery | are fully large enough for all pur- 1 poses.
 As to Small Trees.
 | There are several very important mat tcrs to be gained in planting small trees.
 There Is not so much loss, the smaller trees will take hold quicker. and then 1 they may be trained and shaped right from the start In planting. some atten- | ton should be given to the pruning off of all broken roots and all over-grown roots should be cut back. All broken | limbs should be cut off When the trees are selected they should be dug up with care and the roots moistened and kept wet; packed in moss or straw and wrap | ped in some old blanket, and hurried to | the field where the soil has been prepar- ed as before directed. The sooner tree | is set out after being taken up from the nursery the better and the more apt 1t | Is to grow.
 | have gone Into this matter of handling the trees quite at length, because l have | known growers who. after having been | at all the expense and labor in preparing | their land for trees, lose all by bad pur- chase of trees or by careless handling of
 the trees, in letting them remain out of the ground until the roots were entirely | dried out
 I want to state here one matter l over looked in the planting, which is. that one of the most important matters gained by planting trees in the late fall is that
 in our southern states where the winters are damp and mild, the trees will start a fine growth and so by the time the hot
 summer comes. they will have become
 SO thoroughly established that they will withstand any dry weather we may have. | with but a very small per cent of loss. One other matter I was about to over- look in the selection of the trees, Is. that the trees before being dug up in the nursery should have finished their sea-