When enriching the ground
about a tree, never heap the fertilizer round the trunk, but
spread it evenly from the stem outward as far as the branches
reach, remembering that the head above is the measure of the root
extension below. Air-slacked lime is also useful to the peach in
small quantities; and so, no doubt, would be a little salt from
time to time. Bone-meal is highly recommended.
Like other fruit-trees, the peach does not thrive on low, wet
ground, and the fruit-buds are much more apt to be winter-killed
in such localities. A light, warm soil is regarded as the most
favorable.
Of course we can grow this fruit on espaliers, as they do abroad;
but there are few localities where any advantage is to be derived
from this course. In our latitude I much prefer cool northern
exposures, for the reason that the fruitbuds are kept dormant
during warm spells in winter, and so late in spring that they
escape injury from frost. Alternate freezing and thawing is more
harmful than steady cold. The buds are seldom safe, however, at
any time when the mercury sinks ten or fifteen degrees below zero.
As we have intimated, abuse of the peach-tree has developed a
fatal disease, known as the "yellows." It manifests itself in
yellow, sickly foliage, numerous and feeble sprouts along the
larger limbs and trunk, and small miserable fruit, ripening
prematurely.
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