THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



449 



THE SHIPPING PEACHES OF PLACER COUNTY. 



By C. K. Turner. County Horticultural Commissioner, Auburn, Cal. 



The shipping season for peaches in Placer County covers a period of five months. 

 from May to September, with a few of late varieties still going forward throughout 

 October. The district in which this fruit is grown on a commercial scale is 



confined to a belt, approximately 15 miles long, on 

 both sides of the Southern Pacific Railroad main 

 lines, from Loomis to Bowman, embracing an area 

 of about 100 square miles in the rolling foothills of 

 the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the territory 

 covered by this belt there is a wide difference in the 

 character of the soil, varying from the decomposed 

 granite at the lower or southwestern end of the belt, 

 through the slate formation around Auburn to a red 

 clay loam at the upper northeastern end. At Loomis 

 we are approximately 200 feet above sea level, while 

 at Bowman the elevation is some 1,400 feet. While, 

 as just stated, peaches are grown on a commercial 

 scale throughout this district, yet an overwhelming 

 majority of this fruit is raised on the granite soils 

 of the south and western end of the belt. Last year 

 (1916) approximately 97 per cent of all shipping 

 peaches were raised in the territory tributary to 

 Loomis. I'enryn and Newcastle, this being, roughly 

 speaking about 50 per cent of the area described, 

 and there seems no doubt that, of all our soils, the 

 decomposed granite is that which best meets the requirements of the peach. 



In Placer County there are some 5,475 acres of shipping peaches in bearing. 

 representing about 591.300 trees, ranging from four-year-old trees to fully matured 

 trees. These, with a crop that was estimated at 75 per cent of normal, gave last 

 year (1916) 1,301,54S boxes, or about 1,126 cars, that were shipped to market. 

 Figures are not available showing the average age of the trees, so that the figures 

 just given may be somewhat misleading as to the bearing capacity of the trees. 

 However, it may be stated that mature, vigorous trees will average from six to eight 

 boxes to a tree, while four-year-old trees will give from one-half to one box. 



The varieties grown embrace practically all the commercial varieties, from the 

 early white peaches in the latter part of May to the Salways and other late yellow 

 peaches which go to market up to the middle of October in a normal season. In 

 the order of their numerical importance the Elberta is supreme, many solid cars of 

 this variety being shipped in midsummer. There is a large acreage in Triumphs, 

 the earliest of our yellow peaches. Following these are Hale's Early. St. John. 

 Crawford, Elberta, Lovell. Salway and other freestones. Practically all our 

 midsummer clings. Tuscan, Orange, McKevitt and others are wrapped and shipped 

 to Eastern markets, and a considerable portion of the later clings, Phillips, Levi, 

 el e.. are also marketed in the same manner. 



Thanks to modern methods of spraying and caring for the trees there is now a 

 MT.v small proportion of the peach crop lost through the attacks of insect pests and 

 diseases. Prior to 1902 the peach growers of Placer County annually lost a 

 considerable percentage of their crops (in some cases the loss amounted to 50 per 

 cent or even higher) through the ravages of the larvae of the peach twig borer Anarsia 

 liucateUa. This pest, however, is now under absolute control through the use of 

 lime-sulfur spray in the spring, at the time the blossom buds are swelling, and the 

 loss is only a small fraction of 1 per cent in orchards properly cared for. For a 

 few years, about 1904 to 1906, our trees suffered considerably from the attacks of 

 the disease commonly called "peach blight," caused by a parasitic fungus (Goryneum 

 (j, yerinkii) , but this has been brought under complete control by means of a late 

 fall spray of Bordeaux mixture. Another fungus, peach leaf curl (Kxoascus 

 deformans) which, if uncontrolled, would be very damaging to the trees, is no 

 longer much to be feared since it is practically eradicated by the same spray that 

 controls the twig borer. 



