No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 645 



taking my noon hour under that tree, stomach full of those peaches, 

 a dream or a picture came into my mind — If the God of nature and 

 some careless man dropping a seed there, and it started and grew 

 into that tree, if there were peaches in that ground, why wasn't it 

 possible for me some time in the future to get money enough to 

 buy a few trees of choice varieties and plant them in more congenial 

 soil, and wasn't there an opportunity and promise there, and from 

 the savings of that |12.50, I bought the first 200 peach trees I ever 

 owned, planted them in a poor sandy side hill of mother's little 

 farm and thus started my peach orchards that now hold, nearly one- 

 fourth million trees. That is my start, and if that statement is any 

 inspiration to any boy or girl that is seeking a chance, I can say 

 while at that time it was believed that commercial peach growing 

 was limited to a few favored regions in Delaware, New Jersey and 

 Michigan, and outside of that there was no hope for any thing but 

 occasional growth of trees — I can say since that time, from that in- 

 spiration that came to me, the inspiration that has come to hundreds 

 of others and the scientific knowledge that has come to us, it has 

 gone out so you may be almost in any coiner of any state of this 

 Union, and yet can grow peaches and grow them successfully under 

 certain conditions; not in every field on every farm, but somewhere 

 almost in every county. This peach growing country is wonderfully 

 broadened out, so there are no more ''peach regions," no more peach 

 ''seasons." I remember when I first thought of increasing my plant- 

 ings and going south, I thought we might get peaches on the mar- 

 ket in June or July, I talked with dealers who thought they were 

 wise, and they said people wouldn't buy peaches any time; that the 

 time when people buy peaches is the last of August and early in 

 September; that is the only time. They said, "You might sell a few, 

 but to sell them in any quantity, it is nonsense," and when I asked 

 them to take a little stock in the orchard to make it possible for me 

 to develop it, they shook their heads and said it couldn't be done, 

 and yet today the great commercial peach months are June and July, 

 And yet we sell quantities of them in May; many in August, Sep- 

 tember and many in October. So the peach season of late August 

 and early September of years ago is now extended from May to 

 November, and it is possible by growing peaches in diff'erent sec- 

 tions in the United States, by the change of varieties and change of 

 methods of culture and methods of transportation, all those are fact- 

 ors that count. Perhaps the greatest factor in this enlarged peach 

 culture in America has been the bringing to this country of the 

 North China type of peaches, and of their seedlings that have been 

 developed within the last twenty-five years, a type of peaches that 

 are somewhat hardier, considerably hardier in fruit bud than the 

 old Persian type we grew prior to that. I think perhaps that has 

 been the greatest factor in broadening out. 



The next factor* has been the consolidation <ft great railway 

 lines of transportation. We talk about the monopoly of consolida- 

 tion, but if it hadn't been for that, it wouldn't have been possible 

 to feed the great American nation today. And then the building of 

 the refrigerator car. Some of you here present probably remember 

 the time when there wasn't a refrigerator car line in America ; when 

 there wasn't a refrigerator car that you could have loaded your per- 



