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      The Peach is the popular crop with those who are situated so fortunately as to grow it. A high, sandy, well-underdrained soil is best for the peach, and much "puttering around" in the soil preparation can be commended. Leave nothing undone in preparing the planting ground. The trees should stand fifteen to eighteen feet apart and should never be older than one year from the bud. All branches should be removed at time of planting, allowing nothing to stand but the straight trunk, which should be cut back to three feet. A northern exposure, or locations exposed to cool breezes night and day in early spring, and where the frost remains in the ground late in the spring, are natural advantages. The soil should always be cultivated and nothing but hoed crops should be grown in the orchard. After the trees come into bearing nothing should be grown, as they will need all the substance.
      Cultivation should begin with the opening of spring, and be kept up until the fruit is plucked. The shortening in of all new growth, and cutting away of all dead and injured wood, must be carefully attended to.

ex Chapter 14, “Irrigation for the Orchard,” in Lucius M. Wilcox, Irrigation Farming : A Handbook for the proper application of water in the production of crops (Revised and enlarged edition, 1907) : 293
U California copy/scan (via google books) : link
 

30 January 2026