2492 



PEA 



PEACH 



as to the most available stock best suited for the 

 particular needs. 



Sugar or edible-podded peas. 



These are a class little known in this country, but 

 are largely grown in Europe. They are characterized 

 by large more or less fleshy and often distorted pods, 

 which are cooked when in the same stage of maturity 

 and in the same way as string beans. Varieties have 

 been developed in which the pods are as white, tender, 

 and wax-like as those of the best varieties of wax- 

 podded beans. 



Field peas. 



There are a number of kinds of field peas in which the 

 vines are very vigorous, hardy, and productive and the 

 peas generally small, hard, and becoming tough, dry, 

 and unpalatable as they ripen. In one variety of this 

 class known as French Canner, the very young and 

 small peas are sweet and tender, and in this stage are 

 put up by French canners under the name of "petit 

 poise." The larger-seeded Marrowfat peas were form- 

 erly commonly used by canners, and large quantities 

 are still packed. If this is done while the peas are 

 sufficiently young and ten- 

 der they make a fairly good 

 product. 



2782. Pea, Stratagem. 2783. Pea, Melting Sugar. 



( X H) ( X 1 A) 



Split peas. 



Large quantities of field peas, mostly of the smaller- 

 seeded kinds, are used for split peas, the preparation of 

 which consists in cleaning and grading, kiln-drying, 

 splitting, and screening out the hulls and chips from the 

 full half peas. This is all done by special machines, 

 mostly of American invention. The annual consump- 

 tion of split peas in the United States is about 50,000 

 barrels, of which, before the European war, 75 per cent 

 came from abroad. \y\ W_ TRACT. 



PEA. Congo P., Cajanus indicus. Everlasting P., Lathyrus lati- 

 folius. Glory P., Clianthus Dampieri. Hoary P., Pigeon P., Caja- 

 nus indicus. Scurfy P., Psoralea. Sweet P., Lathyrus odoratus. 



PEACH. The tree and fruit of Prunus Persica (or 

 Persica vulgaris), widely cultivated in the United States 

 and parts of Canada for home use and market. 



In the northern prairie states and on the plains, 

 and in the colder parts of the mountain regions of the 

 West, the peach is little grown or is even altogether 

 absent; yet the range of adaptability is constantly 

 extending as the local conditions and requirements 

 become better known. There is less dependence on 



"fruit-belts" than formerly, in which some special 

 favor of climate or location was supposed to exist. 

 Some parts of New England are well adapted to com- 

 mercial peach-culture. Parts of Canada bordering the 

 Great Lakes, and regions in Nova Scotia, are promi- 

 nent peach districts. Varieties of special adaptability 

 to climate and useful also for particular purposes have 

 arisen in recent years; and the requirements of the 

 peach are now better understood than formerly. The 

 range of its cultivation will probably be considerably 

 broadened in years to come. 



The discussion of the peach is here comprised in 

 four articles: 



Page 



The culture of the peach (M. A. Blake) 2492 



Peach-culture in the South (J. H. Hale) 2500 



Peach-growing in California (George C. Roeding) . 2503 

 Protecting peach trees in cold climates (W. Pad- 

 dock) 2504 



The culture of the peach. 



The marked feature in the development of the peach 

 industry hi the United States since about 1900 has 

 been the extension of the areas of commercial peach- 

 production because of the introduction of hardier 

 varieties such as Carman, the discovery of materials 

 and methods that make certain the control of peach- 

 scab and brown-rot, and the organization of fast-freight 

 and refrigerator-car service that permits of successful 

 long-distance shipment of this perishable fruit. 



The introduction of the San Jos6 scale was the cause 

 of the destruction of hundreds of thousands of peach 

 trees throughout the country from about 1900 to 1907, 

 the period of greatest damage varying to some extent 

 in each district. The growers who persisted in the 

 business were those who had the capital, energy, and 

 persistence to take up the new problem of spraying, and 

 these men may appropriately be termed the pioneers 

 of the modern peach business. 



The necessity of spraying to control the scale also 

 focused the attention of the growers upon all other 

 factors of peach-production except marketing, which 

 for the tune presented few difficulties because of the 

 great reduction in the number of bearing trees and the 

 ability of the local markets to absorb much of the crop 

 produced. 



Peach-scab and brown-rot caused serious damage 

 to the crop annually in central and southern peach 

 districts until the self-boiled lime-sulfur summer spray 

 was proved to be a successful remedy. 



The development of large commercial areas at long 

 distances from market has resulted in better grading 

 and packing. The Georgia six-basket carrier has 

 become the popular shipping package from southern 

 New Jersey to Georgia, Alabama, and Texas. (Fig. 2707.) 



Innumerable changes and improvements in the 

 growing and handling of the crop have occurred within 

 the last ten years. 



The United States Census reports show many inter- 

 esting facts in connection with the extent and develop- 

 ment of the peach industry. A few trees are found in 

 every state in the Union. According to the Census of 

 1910 only three states, Wyoming, North Dakota, and 

 Montana, have less than 5,000 trees. Five other states, 

 Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Maine, and 

 Vermont, have less than 10,000 trees. The most signifi- 

 cant fact, however, is that twenty-six states reported a 

 total of more than 1,000,000 bearing trees each, which 

 definitely shows the extended area over which this crop 

 is produced to some commercial degree. The Census 

 for 1910 shows Georgia to lead in the total number of 

 bearing trees with 10,609,119; Texas is second with 

 9,737,827; and California is third with 7,829,011 trees. 

 On the basis of total number of trees, however, Texas 

 leads with 12,696,640; California is second with 12,238,- 

 573, and Georgia is third with 12,140,486. 



