PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 



Irffl 



than the so-called " Persian " group, to which most of our older 

 cultivated varieties belong. 



Hunters and trappers, and even the Indians, appear to have aided in 

 the dissemination of these peaches in many sections, so that the early 

 settlers in many parts of the Mississippi Valley and the Upper Lake 

 regions found the type so firmly established in certain localities as to 

 appear indigenous. From the Gulf to the Great Lakes it was thor- 

 oughly established by the beginning of the nineteenth century, reach- 

 ing its northern limit of planting in orchard form, so far as known to 

 the writer, in the so-called "Indian peach orchard" on the Kalamazoo 

 River, near the present village of Douglas, Mich., where a bearing 

 orchard of 300 trees was found by the settlers when they reached 

 there, about 1831. In the mountain regions of southwestern Virginia, 

 western North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee there are numerous 

 seedling orchards of the type still in existence, and it is a significant 

 fact that in recent years nurserymen throughout the Northern and 

 Eastern States are turning to that region for sound and disease-free 

 seed for planting. 



Notwithstanding the early introduction and wide distribution of the 

 type under such names as " Indian Peach," "Indian Cling," " Squaw 

 Peach," etc., it has given rise to but few varieties that have been con- 

 sidered worthy of perpetuation by budding. The "Columbia," which 

 Coxe originated in New Jersey from a seed taken from Georgia, was 

 for many years after its description in 1817 apparently the only 

 described variety. At the present time there are but few varieties, and 

 most of these are restricted in their planting to the region in close 

 proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, to which they appear to be better 

 adapted than those of an}' other group. None of these has yet attained 

 distinct commercial importance, but several are highly esteemed for 

 home use. A marked characteristic of this group is that certain 

 individual trees have a long blossoming period and a correspondingly 

 long season in which the fruit matures. It is this that gives special 

 value to the " Everbearing," a variety which originated about 1885 in 

 the garden of a Mrs. Page, at Cuthbert, Ga. Blossoming, as it does, 

 through a period of several weeks, it rarely fails to set a fair crop of 

 fruit, while the fruit in turn ripens through a period of from six to 

 twelve weeks on the same tree. 



The variety was named and disseminated by the P. J. Berckmans 

 Company, of Augusta, Ga. , in 1897. It has been found insufficiently 

 hard}- in New Jersey, but is considered worthy of planting for home 

 use throughout the recognized peach districts of the South. It is not 

 recommended as a commercial peach, as the peculiar color and long 

 ripening season would doubtless prevent it from becoming a profitable 

 market sort. 



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