When transplanted, the tops should be cut back in proportion to the amount of roots lost in digging the trees. The head is usually started with the branches about 2 feet from the ground. Each year while the trees are small, the strong shoots should be cut back to preserve a symmetrical form and the weak and surplus shoots should be removed.
The cultivation of orange orchards should be the same as recommended for other fruits, except that as they grow in hot, dry climates, it should be even more thorough, that the evaporation of moisture from the soil may be reduced to a minimum. California growers have found that by frequent shallow cultivation they can reduce the amount of water that must be applied by irrigation, and that frequent tillage and a little water will give better results than little or no cultivation and a large amount of water. The amount of water required will also depend on the season and the character of the soil. Thus on strong soils and after a heavy rainfall no irrigation will be required, while sandy soils will need irrigating as often as once in three or four weeks from May to October. As a general rule, two or three irrigations in a season will be ample. When used at all, water should be applied in sufficient quantities to wet down to the roots of the trees. Frequent scanty waterings may do much harm. The water is usually applied in furrows, and for young trees there should be one on either side of each row, but as the roots extend the number should be increased, until when five or six years old the entire orchard should be irrigated from furrows 4 or 5 feet apart. In Florida, irrigation is not practiced.
Cover-cropping in winter is now common in Florida and California, some of the leguminous crops being used.
Varieties of the orange.
Among the best varieties are: Bahia, commonly known as Washington Navel, Thompson Improved, Maltese Blood, Mediterranean Sweet, Paper Rind St. Michael, and Valencia. Homosassa, Magnum Bonum, Nonpareil, Boone, Parson Brown, Pineapple, and Hart are favorites in Florida. The tangerines and mandarins, or the “kid-glove” oranges, have a thin rind that is easily detached from the rather dry pulp. Orange trees are frequently injured by various scale insects, but for several of the most troublesome kinds, insect parasites have been found that keep them partially or wholly in check, and for others the trees are sprayed, or fumigated with hydrocyanic acid gas.
Peach.—Given the proper exposure, peaches may be fruited in many sections where now it is thought impossible to have a crop. It is usually the practice of the amateur to set peach trees in the shelter of some building, exposed on the south or east to the sun, and “in a pocket” as regards winds. This should be reversed, except in the close vicinity of large bodies of water. The fruit-buds of peaches will stand very cold weather when perfectly dormant, often as low as 12° or 18° below zero in New York; but if the buds once become swollen, comparatively light freezing will destroy the crop. Therefore, if the trees be set on elevations where a constant air drainage may be obtained, sheltered, if at all, on the south and east from the warming influence of the sun, the buds will remain dormant until the ground becomes warm, and the chances of a failure will be lessened. This advice applies mostly to interior sections.
A well-drained, sandy loam or gravelly soil suits the peach better than a heavy soil; but if the heavier soil is well drained, good crops may be secured.
Peaches are short-lived at best, and one should be satisfied with three or four crops from each tree. They bear young, usually a partial crop the third year. If a crop may be had every other year until the trees are eight or ten years old, they will have well repaid the effort of cultivation. But they often bear twice this long. Young trees may be set every four or five years to replace older ones, thus having trees at a bearing age at all times on a small place. Trees should be set 14 to 18 feet apart each way.
Peach trees are always bought when they are one year old, that is, one year from the bud. For example, the bud is inserted in the fall of 1909. It remains dormant until the spring of 1910, when it pushes into vigorous growth; and in the fall of 1910 the tree is ready for sale. Peach trees that are more than a year old are scarcely worth the buying. It is a common practice, when setting peach trees, to prune them back to a whip, leaving a stub bearing not more than one bud where each branch is cut off.
The three great enemies of the peach are the borer, the yellows, and the curculio.