Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1908 — PEACH TREE TRAINED ON WALL. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PEACH TREE TRAINED ON WALL.

(dispense with much that is necessary ,in our old country. But, all the siyue, I ithiuk the fruit might be benefited if • you did some of the things that every French grower does. France is tlie country of detail, you know, and we think it pays in fruit growing just as it does in cooking. “The fruits we pet and pamiier most are the peach and the grape. The majority of peaches grown iu this country would seeip to a Frenchman to be distinctly of tile second order—that is. In the language of his fruit culture, a peach ‘de plein vent,' or one grown on trees in an orchard. Between peaches i grown thus, ‘open to. the wind,’ and those trained 011 trellises against walls .the French make a sharp distinction. “The trellis, or ‘espalier,’ peaches are the only ones that appear on a •carefully regulated table and are universally cultivated. They always eom'mand a much higher price than the tree peach, and at Montreuil the fruit ;has been brought to such perfection that they habitually sell for from 40 to 80 cents apiece. “Even more elalKirate is the procedure with fine table grapes. Hothouse grapes are not highly in favor among French epicures, for they are held, to lack the ric-h flavor of the fruit grown In the open. At the, same time grapes are so much in dehnand as a table delicacy tiiat it Is desirable that their season should be prolonged as far as possible into the winter. The difficulty of this situation has been met by a system which, complicated as it Is, is quite generally in use.

“The grapes are grown on trellises exposed to tin* sun and six or seven yards apart, like the peaches. When the clusters, are ripe they are put with the stein and leaves in a sort of glass box or bottle, which is placed in a

dark room. If the producer is growing 'for the market the bunches are looked at every day, for the slightest speck of Imperfection will keep him from disposing of his stock to the best houses. “The same care in lesser degree runs through all the French grower does. In certain places, but only In a few. the apricot is-treated wittralt thc carc shown to the peach. It is less profitable to grow, for it does not keep well except by an expensive process of coating It with wax. The trees, however, are kept very carefully pruned, and the production of each is limited. “Growers can at once retard fruit and dwarf trees to such an extent that It is possible to purchase during the Winter fruit actually growing on little trees small enough to be served, pot and all, on the table. Peaches thus grown (one on a tree only) cost about S2O a piece, other things 1n proportion, and the fruit is sold usually not to French people, but to visitors with more money than discretion, who think It smart to Imitate what they consider the luxury of our gay capital. “All this care of detail may seem absurd to you (who have a country so large and so lavishly productive as America. Still, I think it is an open question whether even here, where ‘time is money’ so much more than It la In Europe, the expenditure of care and thought on aome neglected details might not lead to the financial profit of some growers." *

DWARF PEACH TREE.