Fig. 13.— Persian Race. (Var. Alexander.) 



EXPERIMENT STATION WORK WITH PEACHES. 403 



Thiirber, Georgia, and Elbert a. Price states that the fohage of 

 peaches belonging to this group is very large and flat and in the 

 Southern States turns a peculiar 

 pea green in the fall, a character- 

 istic which readily distinguishes it 

 from the other groups. In general 

 it is adapted to zones north of those 

 suited to the Spanish race. 



5. THE PERSIAN RACE. 



This race (figs. 8e, 13) forms the 

 bulk of Northern peach orchards, 

 and it is practically useless to 

 plant varieties of this race in 

 the southern part of the Gulf 

 States. The fruit is usually highly 

 colored and of the best flavor. Price gives the following description: 



Tree medium-sized to large; limbs short and thick, with long naked places; bark 

 usually rich purplish red on young wood; bloom large and small, owing to variety; 

 foliage crimpled and conduplicate, has purplish tinge before falling, foreshadowing 

 the color of the fruit; the foliage falls off early; trees require long period of rest. 



TREE GROWTH. 



The peach tree is one of the earliest fruits to bloom in the spring 

 and the growth of the branches and wood is practically complete by 

 midsummer. Measurements at the New Jersey Stations « of the 

 growth of twigs at different periods during the growing season indi- 

 cate that about half the growth was complete by the middle of May 

 and about four-fifths by the middle of June, shov/ing that cultivation 

 for the benefit of the tree should be done early in the season, com- 

 mencing before the time corn is planted. 



On rich ground, or when stimulated by late cultivation, excessive 

 rains, or warm weather late in the fall, the season's growth of wood 

 may fail to ripen up well, and the tree thus enters the winter with 

 twigs and branches immature and sappy, a condition almost sure to 

 result in a large amount of winter injury. Nursery stock is especially 

 prone to grow late in the fall. 



FLOWER BUDS. 



A. L. Quaintance studied the development of the fruit buds of a 

 4-year old Deming September peach, microscopical preparations 

 being used.^ There was no indication of flowers when the buds 

 were examined, June 14, but the embryo flowers were found well 



a New Jersey Stas. Bui. 197. b Georgia Sta. Rpt. 1900, p. 349. 



