14 Peach-Growing 



The estimated average crop for Georgia for the same period 

 was in excess of 4,000,000 bushels, the annual extremes 

 ranging from the maximum of 6,175,000 bushels in 1912 to 

 a minimum of 1,950,000 bushels the following year. Other 

 states of notably large average annual yields for this eight- 

 year period are Arkansas, Texas, Michigan, and New York, 

 in the order named. For these years, also, the estimated 

 average yield for the United States was 45,714,000 bushels, 

 as compared with 35,470,000 bushels for the Census year 

 (1909), the annual range in the crop during the period 1909 

 to 1916 being from an estimated yield of 34,880,000 bushels 

 in 1911 to that of 64,097,000 bushels in 1915. These figures 

 serve to emphasize the variability of the crop from year to 

 year in different parts of the country. 



DISPOSITION OF THE CROPS 



That the great bulk of the peach crop is used in the fresh 

 state, a large proportion of it being shipped from centers of 

 production to distant markets, is a fact too well recognized 

 to require more than passing mention. There are many 

 secondary ways, however, of utilizing the fruit, but only 

 two of them are of sufficient importance commercially to 

 call for attention here. 



The drying of peaches has become a very important factor 

 in California within comparatively recent years. While 

 formerly a large number of peaches were evaporated in the 

 eastern peach districts, the development of the dried peach 

 industry in California introduced an economic situation which 

 the growers in humid regions could not successfully meet. 

 The fruit is sun-dried in that state. In humid regions the 

 cost of the necessary fuel and evaporator equipment so in- 



