106 PEACH LEAF CURL: ITS NATURE AND TREATMENT. 



Table 24. — Number of peaches thinned from the sprayed Lovell j)each trees in the experi- 

 ment block of the Rio Bonito orchard in the spring of ^555— Continued. 



GATHERING FRUIT OF SPRAYED AND UNSPRAYED TREES. 



The fruit of the Lovell variety ripened rapidly in the Sacramento 

 Valley after the middle of August, 1895. On the experiment trees a 

 large portion of the crop was sufficiently matured for shipment to the 

 canneries by the 20th of that month. By that date the plans had 

 been made for the gathering of the crop, which work was completed 

 before the 1st of September. The fruit was gathered at two pick- 

 ings, the second picking beginning shortly after the close of the first. 

 The crop was marketed in three ways: 



(1) All perfect peaches above a standard size adopted by the can- 

 neries, and sufficiejitly firm to bear shipment by rail from Biggs to 

 Oakland, Cal., a distance of about 140 miles, were sold to a firm at 

 the latter point at $30.80 per ton, f. o. b. cars at Biggs. This fruit 

 comprised about 51 per cent of the yield of the experiment block. 



(2) All perfect peaches of canning size which were too mature to 

 bear the delay and long shipment by rail to Oakland were shipped to 

 a cannery at Chico, Cal., a distance of about 30 miles. This fruit 

 brought $30 per ton, f. o. b. cars at Biggs. It comprised al)Out 30 

 per cent of the yield of the experiment block. 



(3) Such fruit as was below cannery size, overmature, or imperfect 

 in any respect was sent to the drying ground to be dried. In the cal- 

 culations of the present work this fruit is valued at three-fourths of a 

 cent per pound in the green state. This is less than the equivalent of 

 dried fruit was worth at the time of curing after allowing for the cost 

 of drying. The fruit sent to the drying ground represented about 16 

 per cent of the yield of the experiment block. 



The work of gathering, weighing, and grading the crop of the 

 experiment rows was carefully systematized. As before shown, the 

 experiment block was 20 trees wide from east to west, and through 

 the center from north to south a driveway was made, so that the rows 



