Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1911-03-07
AUTHORITY ON PEACHES
A. NJ. LaFOILETTE, VETERAN
GROWER, GIVES ADVICE.
Believes Peaches Can Be Grown Sue
cessfully in Many Parts of
Valley.

The following extracts are from a
paper read by A. M. LaFollette, of
Salem, who is the owner of one of the
most famous peach orchards in the
Northwest:
In planting peach orchard for
commercial purposes, / would not
plant too many that ripen at the same
time, but would plant desirable kinds
and lengthen out the gathering season
to about two or three months, for 20
or 80 acres of peaches, ripening at the
same time, requires an army of help
to take care of them before they are
too ripe to market. l have a three
year-old peach orchard in which were
planted a great many different varie-
ties, so as to prolong the gathering
season from the first of July till the
middle of October, being three
months and half of continuous
peach harvest, which l think is far
better than to have a few varieties
all ripening inside of Is or 20 days.
Come to my orchard any time from
the first of July till the middle of Oc-
tober, and you will find me shipping
peaches to market
Varieties in Order.
"To accomplish this will name the
varieties in their order of ripening,
namely: Early Alexander, Amsden
June Waterloo, Triumph, Early CO.
lumbia, Hale's EARLY, Mamie Ross,
Lowell, Champion, Early Crawford,
Early Charlotte, Tuscan Cling, Golden
Cling, Muir, Late Crawford, Elberta,
Fitzgerald and Salway. Anyone plant
ing these II varieties can have this
luscious fruit continuously for at least
three and a half months. AS for the
best canning and all-around peach,
think the Elberta heads the list as
the best freestone peach.
"As for the best cling peaches, /
think the Tuscan is the best, being a
very large peach, with dark red
cheeks, and one of the hardest peach
trees grown and very little subject to
that dread disease, curl leaf.
THE Early Charlotte is a very fine
freestone peach. The tree is very
hardy and inclined to curl leaf but
very little. 1t is a Seeding from the
Early Crawford and originated in Sa-
lem many years ago.
Life of an Orchard.
LAS to the life of peach orchard
in the willamette Valley, that has
been sprayed and pruned under scien-
tific principles, should think from 35
to SO years would be no exaggeration.
l have a lot of 21-year-old trees that
bear every year, and seem to be as
healthy and vigorous as when they
were 10 years younger. I'have some
trees that are over 80 years old that
are loaded with peaches every year.
My son, at Wheatland, has a peach |
orchard in which some of the trees
are 81 years old, and they are loaded
with fruit every year. This proves to
me that a peach tree properly treated
in the Willamette Valley will live at
least a generation, but if not taken
care of and treated with up-to-date
methods, they will succumb to the
diseases they are subject to and die in
a very short time.
Rules of Successes.
To grow a successful peach orchard |
in the Willamette Valley there are
four fundamental rules to observe:
The first and most important one is
a thorough spraying at the right
time and not too late; the next is a
severe cutting back and pruning the
first three years after planting, so as
to make the tree stoclxy and its roots
strong and vigorous; the next is a
thorough cultivation through the
summer keeping the moisture as near
the surface as possible until the mid
die of September, and last but not
least, thorough cutting back of the
ends of the branches about three
inches from the first to the twentieth
Of August, thereby securing a profu
sion Of fruit buds Anyone having a
good location. planting a peach or
,hard I'm the willamette Valley, and
observing these rules strictly, will
surely be successful. But II you do
not observe them you will surely fail.
and had better keep the money in
your pocket that you have to pay for
rees.