In the nursery trade, peach-trees are graded according to caliper or according to height--rarely both since there is a very definite relation between the two. The common sizes by caliper, or diameter of the trunk, are five-, seven- or nine-sixteenths of an inch. According to height, the grades are "three to four foot," "four to five foot," or "five to seven foot." The medium-sized grade is usually the best since fewer trees die in transplanting, they are much easier to handle and, more important, provide a better opportunity for the grower to form the head as he wants it. The smallest grade often has many stunted trees. A first-class tree is free from insects and fungi or the effects of either. Other things being equal, a short, stocky tree is better than a tall, spindling one; one with many branches better than one with few. The best stamp on a peach-tree, however, is a well-developed root-system--many-branched, well-distributed, fibrous, fresh roots. Practically all peach-trees in New York are dug in the fall and kept in storage through the winter. THE PEACH-ORCHARD AND ITS CARE The peach-orchard is the consummation of modern fruit-growing. It is more than a plantation of peach-trees, for it personifies ideals and reflects the personality of the owner. A glance at a peach-orchard and one knows whether the proprietor is lazy or industrious, slovenly or orderly, procrastinating or prompt. An orchard of dingy, unhappy peach-trees is an odious sight in the eyes of a good fruit-grower accustomed to nurturing and fondling his own trees. Tenants seldom succeed in peach-growing. Here is a case in which Cato, the sturdy old Roman farmer, is surely right: "The face of the master is good for the land." The peach in our climate is least able of all fruits to subsist without the aid of man. The best trees in the best soil, if neglected, have a short, miserable and profitless existence. These considerations, then, must bring us to the conclusion that growing peaches differs somewhat from growing other fruits. If not more difficult it is at least a finer and more delicate affair in which the laborer and craftsman working by rule give way to men of higher degree who put thought, intelligence and taste into their work. New York is very fortunate in having much land in all of its peach-districts that is easily prepared for planting. Growers are not called upon to profane the peach by planting it in a field of boulders as in New England nor amongst stumps as in some southern peach-regions. Growers in the State long ago learned that it is an up-hill task to grow the peach in land not thoroughly fitted at the start. Usually the land is prepared a year in advance by putting in a hoed crop, after which it is plowed deeply in the fall, pulverized thoroughly in the spring and then planted as promptly as possible. Fall-planting is not practicable because of severe losses following from winter-killing.