208 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



fruits may be roughly grouped into three classes: 

 those of temperate regions, the subtropical ones, 

 and those which are strictly tropical. The limits 

 of this work will only admit of a brief discus- 

 sion of those of chief commercial value, taking 

 up first those that belong more especially to the 

 temperate regions. 



Peaches (^Persica vulgaris). — This is easily the 

 most important of the temperate fruits for the region 

 under discussion. Peaches are grown commercially 

 on a large scale in many parts of the South, espe- 

 cially in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Texas. Cli- 

 matic conditions are sufficiently favorable for at least 

 some of the races of peaches in all parts of the South- 

 ern states. High lands should be chosen instead of 

 low, on account of their greater freedom from late 

 spring frosts. These frosts, coming after the blos- 

 soms are open, frequently cause heavy losses, and 

 constitute one of the most serious drawbacks to peach 

 cultivation. Peaches will grow in almost any well- 

 drained soil, but very rich land is not advisable, as 

 it causes too rank a growth. The best lands are 

 light, sandy loams that have a larger proportion of 

 clay in the subsoil. Good upland cotton soils are 

 usually good peach lands. 



Peach pits are generally planted in the fall, scat- 

 tered five or six inches apart in about four-foot rows. 

 The young trees will be large enough to bud by the 

 following August. These buds remain dormant dur- 

 ing the winter, and in the spring, before growth 

 starts, the stock is cut back to just above the bud, 

 thus forcing all the growth of the tree into the in- 



