The Yale expositor., 1915-06-10

There are a few special methods
and practices in the management OF
peach orchards which are of sufficient
Importance in some sections to justify
brief reference to them.
The Ohio agricultural experiment
station has called attention to the eff
cacy of slightly mounding up the soil
about the base of the trees in pre-.
venting injury during periods of eS"
cessively low winter temperatures. In
the same connection ii has been
shown that various other factors re-
Iating to the soil may greatly influence
the amount of damage which peach
trees suffer during such periods.
The winter of 1904 was character
lied in the Lake Erie peach district of
Ohio by periods of severe and pro-
longed cold Great number of peach
trees were killed. The prevailing con-
ditions and their attendant results on
the peach trees are summarized as fol-
lows:
Exceptional causes of susceptibility
to cold in rare cases of apparently
healthy, vigorous trees: Low, moist,
rich black soil which favored an eX-
IRENE growth of soft, poorly ripened,
or matured wood; or high culture upon
soil rich in plant food which brought
about similar results.
The unusually deep, hard freezing
of the earth's crust was due, directly,
to the continued, steady cold, but was
intensified, in many instances, by a
lack of humus or vegetable matter in
the soil, which constitutes natures in
sulation Of the surface of the earth
from cold and heat.
Providing that the orchards had been
kept free from fungous disease and
the San Jose scale by timely and thor
ough spraying. no injury of trees was
found where stable or barnyard ma
nure had been used upon the ground
within the last year or two previous
to the winter of 1904; rarely was an
injured tree found standing in sod;
no injury was done where the surface
of the soil beneath the trees had been
covered with even a very slight
mulch; little injury was done where
the trees stood in fairly well drained
soil containing a moderate amount Of
fertility and humus; no injury was
found where the trees were under the
grass-mulch methods of culture =;
no injury was observed in any case
where the stems of the trees had been
slightly banked or mounded with
few shovelfuls or forkfuls of soil, peat,
or manure
Very few trees which, within the
past years, had been affected with leaf
curl or infested with San Jose scale or
borers remained alive or uninjured;
and very few trees existing upon in
fertile or exhausted soil, depleted Of
humus, escaped uninjured.
The usefulness of a cover crop in
preventing the washing of the soil
during the dormant period of the
trees is frequently we'll demonstrated
Moreover, in some regions where the
winters are rather severe and there is
a very limited snowfall, a cover crop
prevents the snow from blowing away,
thus affording additional protection
against the extreme freezing of the
roots
Another practice which is entirely
regional, but WHICH may be of consid-
cradle advantage at times, is the shad-
ing of the trunks of the trees with
board protectors, lath screens, or in
some other equally effective manner.
This method is of use particularly in
regions in which long periods of ex-
tremely hot weather usually occur and
where the trees are not we'll shaded
on the south and southwest sides.
Shading in the manner suggested
sometimes affords measure of pro-
lection against the form of winter in
jury commonly called sun scald."
In nearly all Of the experiment sta
ton bulletins on peach culture, In cur.
rent horticultural literature, and in
the standard works In which peach
growing. is discussed in detail, empha-
sis is habitually placed upon the ne
cessity of go managing the orchard
that the trees will cease growing and
the wood will become fully mature be.
fore the advent Of cold weather 9th.
er wise, serious winter injury is an.
ticipated. To accomplish this end II
is generally advised to cease tillage
In July or early August. to withhold
fertilizers rich in nitrogen, and to
avoid excessive fertile soil in selecting
sites for peach orchards.
Undoubtedly such advice is perfect
ly sound and applicable to large pro
portion OF the peach-growing districts
but there appear to be some rather
marked exceptions that are applicable
in important peach-growing sections