THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 503 



THE PEACH OUTLOOK.* 



By F. P. RouLLARD, County Horticultural Commissioner, Fresno, Cal. 



It is not always the one thoroughly steeped in the lore of any one 

 subject who can give the best exposition of all the ins and outs and the 

 ups and downs of that subject, but I will endeavor to put in words what 

 I think of the "Peach Outlook." 



I have always tried to be an optimist, but one who can listen to the 

 plaints of the grower and packer for the last year or two and not have 

 his optimism pretty badly warped, is indeed fortunate. Nevertheless, it 

 could be worse and I find some who can see something besides ruin for 

 the peach industry. Perhaps they are only whistling to keep up their 

 courage, but it is some encouragement to hear even a little, tiny whistle 

 on so dark a night. 



"While having the whole State in mind, I am more familiar with the 

 San Joaquin Valley and particularly Fresno County, so I must refer 

 chiefly to this section. 



We do grow a few peaches in Fresno County — according to the report 

 of our Chief Deputy State Commissioner of Horticulture, G. P. Weldon, 

 in the February Bulletin, a little better than one-third of the State's 

 product, and the eight counties of the San Joacpin Valley two-thirds of 

 the production of the entire State. In other words, Fresno County, in 

 1914, produced 122,000 tons of peaches green, the San Joaquin Valley 

 214,000 tons, and the State, 330,000 tons. Unfortunately we do not 

 know, and no one can tell us at the present time, what the proportions 

 are of dried, canning and shipping peaches. I do not know that this 

 knowledge would relieve the situation to any great extent at the present 

 time, but it would be valuable information and would help us to arrive 

 at some conclusions, upon which there is now a great diversity of 

 opinion. 



The last few years, thousands of acres of shipping peaches have coine 

 into bearing so much nearer to the great centers of population than 

 California, that only a frost or flood over large areas in the east and 

 south, make it possible to profitably ship the bulk of the California crop. 

 As a result, these peaches go on the drying trays and add materially to 

 the total of dried peaches. A perusal of the address of Mr. J. H. Hale of 

 Connecticut, at the last fruit growers' convention, gives one a good idea 

 of the apparent overproduction of shipping peaches, and, consequently, 

 the kind of competition the California grower must meet. 



With the canning varieties there does not, as yet, appear to be so 

 much competition, but undoubtedly it will come, and all too soon, for 

 there is no reason why the clingstones will not grow in Georgia and 

 Texas, just as well as the freestone. The large yield it is possible to 

 secure, together with the ease and economy in marketing the crop from 

 the growers' standpoint, should not be ignored and, on the return to 

 normal conditions of the markets for canned goods, the outlook should 

 brighten up considerably. 



With the dried peach California should have a monopoly and, while 

 it looks dark and dreary at present, I can not help but believe there is 



♦Address before tlie State Fruit Growers' Convention, Palo Alto, Cal., July, 1915. 

 4— 19i>79 



