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PEACHES. 



BY Pv. HODGINS, ST. CATHARINES. 



Having for the last twenty years been a close observer of events 

 in the St. Catharines market, and being especially interested in the 

 kind, quality, and quantity of the fruits offered for sale, I desire to say 

 a few words about peaches, which will, I trust, be interesting to parties - 

 who are just now reminded that the season for planting trees is at hand. 

 About twelve years ago I obtained from the St. Catharines Nurseries 

 a few Early Crawford peach trees for my garden in this city; and from 

 the first year they commenced bearing up to the present time, these 

 trees have not missed a single season in yielding fruit. Last autumn 

 the peaches, though not very numerous, were so enormous in size as to 

 make up in some measure for the comparative failure of the crop. 



Xow, I have noticed that even in the most plentiful peach years, 

 the Crawfords always found a ready sale in our local markets, at prices 

 ranging from S2.50 to $4 per bushel; wdiile, at the same time, the 

 wTetched seedling peaches off'ered for sale by farmers were sometimes 

 very hard to sell at any price. The trouble with peach growers in this 

 neighborhood is, that many of them depend, in a large measure, on the 

 "chance seedlings" that spring up so freely on their grounds, instead 

 of procuring trees of well known and valuable kinds like the Crawford. 

 I make these observations solely for tlie purpose of drawing public 

 attention to this important matter, in hopes that the mistakes of former 

 years may be corrected. It is a shameful fact that many wagon-loads 

 of large peaches grown on the other side of the Niagara Eiver are 

 annually sold in the St. Catharines market at high prices, while our 

 own farmers and fruit growers stand around trying in vain to sell the 

 wretched little seedlings that grow upon trees that cost them nothing, 

 and which in many cases were never planted. Now, let us have a 

 sweeping reform in this peach business. Cut down all the weak and 

 worthless seedling trees; procure good stock, from reliable and re- 

 sponsible dealers, and in a few years we may expect a sufficient supply 

 \of good peaches to meet the wants of our own people, without sending 

 Jarge sums of money out of the country to enricli our more enterprising 

 American neighbors. 



