CHOOSING VARIETIES I93 



it began to be known in a very small way during- 

 the '70s, but not until the introduction of Elberta, 

 Carman, Champion and Belle of Georgia during the 

 '90s did the commercial value of this group dawn 

 upon the peach-growing and peach-consuming 

 public. There was considerable conservatism shown 

 at first in adopting these varieties, particularly on 

 account of the white flesh of the leading sorts. 

 There had been (and to some extent still is) a 

 prejudice against white-fleshed peaches. Ignorant 

 buyers fancy that the yellow-fleshed sorts are richer. 

 At any rate they look better to the eye, and a large 

 section of the fruit-buying public still makes its pur- 

 chases on eye-judgment. 



These varieties, however, had such important 

 good qualities, both in tree and fruit, that they 

 rapidly made their way and are now regarded as the 

 most important of our market sorts. The fruit is 

 found to be of definitely superior quality, and this 

 fact is slowly wearing its way into the consciousness 

 of consumers. The fruit is beautiful indeed, for 

 though it is not yellow, it usually ripens with a 

 beautiful red blush, which makes it fully as attrac- 

 tive to the unprejudiced eye as any yellow peach. 



The Elberta which, though somewhat off the reg- 

 ular type, still represents a yellow form of the 

 Chinese Cling group, meets the demand for a variety 

 with yellow flesh and skin, and at the same time 

 maintains very important commercial qualities of 

 enormous value. The Elberta has easily become the 

 leading market peach of North America. It takes 

 the same rank among peaches that Ben Davis takes 

 among apples, except that it is better in quality and 

 actually serviceable over a wider range of territory. 



At the present time there are opportunities still 

 open for improvement. New varieties are needed to 



