The peach-tree inclines to thicken at the top, the small inside
branches die, and are removed by every neat cultivator. As the
branches shoot up, this tree is disposed to abandon its lower
branches, and, like the vine, to bear on the wood the farthest from
the root, _i. e._ the young and new wood. In a few years the tree has
a long-necked trunk, sometimes several of them; while the weight of
foliage and fruit is situated so as to act like a power applied to a
lever; and as the fruit grows heavy, or a storm occurs, the tree is
broken down. We have practised the following method with success. In
the month of July we saw off the top of one half of the tree, leaving
about ten or twelve feet of stem, measuring from the ground. New
shoots will now put out along the whole trunk; a part of these should
be rubbed off, according to the judgment of the cultivator, leaving
such as will give symmetry to the tree, _and form a head low down_.
The second year, these branches will bear fruit, and the other side
may then be treated in the same way.
This new head will require little meddling with for about four years.
At this time, or whenever the tree is outrunning itself, the same
process is to be renewed. But this time the tree will be composed of a
multitude of smaller branches, instead of two or three main ones as at
first. Some of these should be wholly cut out, and the wound smeared
with a residuum of paint, or a thick white paint, or grafting wax, or
anything that will exclude the air while the cut is granulating. The
others are to be cut within, say, five inches of the old, original
wood—leaving, thus, a stem of mere stumps. If the branches are taken
entirely off, leaving only the oldest wood, the buds which would break
from it would not be as healthy or vigorous as those which will spring
from the stumps of the later branches.
Probably twenty or thirty whips will come to each stump; these should
from day to day be reduced in number, until, at last, all are removed
but one, and that one should, if possible, spring from the nearest
point where the stump joins the old stem. When this new branch is
obtained and fairly established, remove the stump with a fine saw, so
as to leave the new branch, as nearly as possible, in the place of the
old one. We remove the whips from a stump gradually in order to give
the tree the advantage of their leaves as long as it can be done
without interfering with the branch or branches which we are training
out.
This method is to the peach what pruning is to the grape. The tree is
kept in hand instead of sprawling abroad, a prey to its own weight and
to storms; there is always a plenty of young wood for the fruit, which
can be easily reached when one thins out, or gathers for use.
One of our trees taught us this method of its own accord in the summer
of 1843. The weight of fruit was so great that we applied a prop to
the middle of the branch; in a few days the branch broke short off at
the point of the prop. It so happened that the three main limbs on one
side of the tree acted in this manner. That same fall a strong growth
of new wood shot out, and the next season I had on _that side_ as fine
a top as ever I had on any peach-tree.
* * * * *
Every farmer who expects his wife to make good butter, after
furnishing her with some good, well-fed milk cows, should provide her
with good milk-pans—large and shallow, so as to present a large
surface for the cream to rise on, and enough of them to hold all her
milk, and allow it to remain undisturbed long enough for all the cream
to rise. These pans should be nicely washed every time the milk is
emptied out of them, and always be clear and bright when filled.