THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK IO9 



Flushing, Long Island, imported the variety to America some time 

 previous to 1828 and grew it to the number of twenty trees. The peaches 

 from Prince's importation seem to have been lost and the variety did not 

 appear again in America until 1869 when P. J. Berckmans,' Augusta, 

 Georgia, brought seed from China, from one of which came the Peento. 

 Peento peaches in America are peculiar to Florida, where all of the score 

 or more varieties but the Peento have originated. This group of peaches 

 has been well described by H. Harold Hume in Bulletin 62 of the Florida 

 Experiment Station from which the description given above is an 

 adaptation. 



PEACH-PRODUCTS 



The magnitude of the peach-industry in the United States is better 

 appreciated if figures showing values are given. The value of peaches 

 and nectarines in 1909, for the United States, was $28,781,078, an amount 

 surpassed by only one other fruit, the apple. The highest value for a 

 geographical division is reported for the East North-Central States, the 

 amount being $5,173,000, followed by the South Atlantic States with 

 $4,888,000 and the Pacific States with $4,887,000. Of individual states, 

 California with her enormous area, over most of which the peach thrives, 

 ranks first, the value of the crop in 1909 reaching $4,574,000; the next 

 most important State is Georgia, $2,183,000; the third. New York, 

 $2,014,000; these followed in order of value by Michigan, Arkansas, Penn- 

 sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and 

 North Carolina, each with a crop of more than $1,000,000 in value. 



The peach has greater commercial value in the United States than 



in which he made his reputation. Under his father, the first William Prince, the nursery at Flushing 

 developed into a great commercial nurserj', a private experiment station, a testing ground for American 

 and foreign fruits and a botanic garden of American plants. The mantle dropped by William Prince, 

 the father, at his death in 1802, fell upon the shoulders of William Prince, subject of this sketch, then just 

 reaching the prime of life and one of the most brilliant and versatile pomologists the cpuntry has known. 

 William Prince continued most successfully the work of his father in breeding new varieties, domesticating 

 native plants and importing foreign fruits and ornamentals. During his supervision the Prince Nursery 

 reached the height of its fame. It was conducted less for money than for love of the work. An attempt 

 was made to grow every American and European plant-species having horticultural value. The catalogs 

 published from the nurserj' by William Prince are among the best horticultural and botanical contribu- 

 tions of the first half of the Nineteenth Century. Besides these, William Prince is the author of the 

 Treatise on Horticulture, published in 1828, and gave assistance to his son, William Robert Prince, in pre- 

 paring his Pomological Manual published in 1832. In the description of varieties in this text it will be 

 found that many varieties of peaches were originated, introduced, imported or first described liy William 

 Prince. 



' For a brief history of the life and horticultural activities of Prosper Julius A. Berckmans, the 

 reader is referred to The Plums of New York, page 159. 



