1232 



PEACH 



PEACH 



begin to swell, spray the trees with a solution con- 

 taining 1 pound of copper sulfate to 25 gallons of 

 water. (3) As soon as the fruit-buds begin to swell, 

 spray the trees with Bordeaux mixture or copper car- 

 bonate. Follow this by another spraying before the 

 buds open. (4) As soon as the fruit shall have reached 

 full size, make a third application. This may be fol- 

 lowed by two or three applications at intervals of five or 

 seven days during the ripening period. It will proba- 

 bly not be often necessary to make more than one late 

 application. Thorough thinning of the fruit is a good 

 preventive of the spread of the rot. 



There are no up-to-date American books on the Peach. 

 Three works have been published: Fulton's "Peach 

 Culture," 1870, new edition, 1889; Butter's "The Culture 

 and Diseases of the Peach," Harrisburg, Pa., 1880; 

 ■Willcox's "Peach Culture," Bridgeton, N. J., 1886. 

 There are several excellent experiment station bulletins 

 on the Peach. See also, Fitz's "Southern Apple and 

 Peach Culturist," and Black's "Cultivation of the Peach 

 and the Pear on the Delaware and Chesapeake Penin- 

 sula." L. H. B. 



Peach Culture in the South (Fig. 1677). — Peaches 

 have been abundant in the southern states since the very 

 earliest settlement, the so-called Spanish varieties be- 

 ing iirst distributed by the early settlers in Florida, and 

 to this day, all through the South Atlantic states the old 

 "Spanish Blood," or "Tinsley" Peach, is spoken of as 

 one of the choice fruits of the earth. From time to time 

 all the improved varieties were scattered through the 

 South by the more progressive horticulturists and nur- 

 serymen, and these and their seedlings were abundant 

 on nearly every plantation. The South being strictly 

 an agricultural country, there was little chance for com- 

 mercial Peach culture until along between 1870 and 1875, 

 when the introduction of a number of new extra-early 

 varieties of the Alexander type, seedlings of Hale and 

 Rivers, gave such bright, showy Peaches the latter part 

 of May and early June that attempts were made to 

 market them at a profit in our Northern cities. 



A lack of quick, through railway - express service 

 caused them to be three and four days on the way, and 

 usually to be delivered in bad order. Occasional lots, 

 arriving in fair to good condition and selling at from 

 $12 to $20 per bushel convinced a few of the shippers that 

 the extra-early Peaches of the South were appreciated at 

 the North, and persistent efforts were continued to get 

 them to market in sound condition. Every conceivable 



and a sufficient quantity of ice, with strong caster wheel* 

 under them so they could be trundled in and out of freight 

 cars, were utilized to bring Peaches north by Savannah 

 and Charleston steamers ; and by re-icing on the steamers 

 much of the early fruit came through in good order and 

 sold at such satisfactory prices as to encourage the 



1670. Unpruned thick-topped Peach tree. 



style of shipping package was used, — paper-wrapped 

 fruit placed between layers of cotton, excelsior, paper, 

 etc., and sent by express or steamer, — and all brought 

 about the same returns, "Arrived in bad order." Only 

 occasional lots paid a profit. Finally, heavy refrigerator 

 boxesthat would hold about 6 bushels of fruit in packages, 



1671. The interior weak branchc 

 (Compare Pig. 1670.) 



sending of the large midsummer Peaches to market in 

 the same way. ami tin- plaiitin;; of nii)denite sized or- 

 chards and thi finilin- LxiHriiiuiitins; with seedlings 

 and varieties l"-sr suiir.l t.i loiif,- slii]Hiients. 



The perfection of tlie refiiguratur car for fruit trans- 

 portation, improved machinery for the cheap manufac- 

 ture of ice, the consolidation of various small railway 

 lines into great through routes of transportation, and a 

 full appreciation by their managers of the importance 

 of a successful Peach industry, and last but not least, 

 the originating of the Elberta Peach by Mr. Rumph, 

 were the final factors in rapidly developing the great 

 commercial Peach industry in Georgia, and its smaller 

 counterparts in S. C, Ala., Miss., Ark. and Texas. 



The year 1889 saw the first large Peach crop success- 

 fully harvested and marketed. Profits were large, and 

 being reported in the press many times greater than they 

 really were, stimulated much planting by those entirely 

 unfamiliar with fruit culture, and with no special love 

 for it except the money that might be made out of it. 

 Cheap lands and the abundance of good, low-priced 

 labor were encouragements to extensive plantings. In 

 nearly every state of the South, land in vast tracts 

 suitable for Peach culture may be had at from $3 to 

 $10 per acre, and labor from sun to sun at from 40 to 60 

 cents per day. Along the Atlantic and Gulf coast, vary- 

 ing from one to two hundred iiiiics inland, most of the 

 land being low and flat, parly i>Ici..niini,'. followed by 

 spring frost, makes the Peach imlustry too uncertain to 

 be profitable. The hill lands in western sections of At- 

 lantic coast states, and northern sections of the Gulf 

 states, is really the Peach country of the South. Fort 

 Valley and Marshallville, the great Peach centers of 

 (jeorgia, though on tablelands about two hundred miles 

 from both ocean and Gulf, and at an elevation of a 

 little over 500 feet, are not in what might strictly be 

 called the hill country, being just below the southern 

 edge of it. In this section of Georgia, most of the Peach 

 orchards have been planted on old cotton-land, much of - 

 which has been in cultivation a century or more, and 

 while the surface-soil is worn and poor, down deep in 

 the red clay soil underlying the 6 or 8 inches of sandy, 

 gray loam of the surface, there must be a vast amount 

 of fertility from the way Peach trees grow when once 

 started and a reasonable amount of culture is given. 



A ma.iority of the orchardists, who are cotton-planters 

 as well, plant second- and third-class yearling trees, or 



