2502 



PEACH 



PEACH 



that force themselves on all the main stems when the 

 top is properly headed back. These little side branches 

 have given several full crops of fruit, when without 

 them there has been failure. 



Soil and climate favor the very brightest of color on 

 all peaches in the South; qualities of the soil and the 

 long, hot summer sun give a richness and sweetness of 

 flavor superior to any other section of America, though 

 the same varieties are not so juicy or luscious as when 

 grown farther North. 



The orchards in connection with cotton plantations 

 run all the way from 10 to 100 acres in extent, while the 

 "straight-out peach farm" seldom has as few as 50 acres 

 in fruit, more of them having from 100 to 200 acres, 

 while orchards all the way from 300 to nearly 1,000 

 acres in extent are no uncommon sight. The Georgia 

 peach industry turns out 5,000 to 7,000 carloads of 

 peaches in seven or eight weeks of a busy picking season, 

 even though the 18,000,000 trees estimated to have been 

 in that state ten years ago have now been reduced to 

 less than 8,000,000. 



Growth usually ceases early in August, and the trees 

 shed their leaves the last of September, a month or six 

 weeks before any frosts occur. Should the fall be 

 warm and wet, some fruit-buds will be forced into 

 bloom, while the greater number will remain dormant 

 until late January or early February, when spring 

 growth commences, The season of full bloom is usually 

 about the first week in March, though it varies all the 

 way from February 15 to March 25, and no matter 

 whether early or late, the entire blooming season of most 

 varieties covers a period of nearly three weeks. While 

 spring frosts are the greatest menace to southern peach- 

 culture, this long blooming period often gives a chance 

 for a setting of fruit between the various frosts, or after 

 the last one, from some belated buds. Even with these 

 varying chances of escaping between frosts, about one 

 year in three frost destroys the peach crop in some one 

 or more of the great centers of peach-production in the 

 South.- 



Two other serious troubles hamper the southern 

 peach cultivator curculio and monilia or brown-rot. 

 Curculios are very abundant; beginning early in April, 

 they keep up their destructive work until the end of 

 the fruiting season. In recent years in the summer 

 spraying for monilia, the addition of arsenate of lead 

 has controlled the ravages of curculio so well that now 

 they are far less destructive than before. The early 

 spring months at the South are inclined to be pleasant 

 and very dry, and the sum- 

 mer rains, which are fre- 

 quent and abundant when 

 they do come, often do not 

 set in until the latter part 

 of July or early August, 

 near the end of the peach- 

 shipping season. Often, 

 however, they begin in June, 

 and continue for two or 

 three weeks, and in the case 

 of the season of 1900 it 

 rained for six weeks through 

 the main part of the peach 

 harvest. Hot sun between 

 showers and the general' 

 mugginess of a warm climate 

 rapidly breed the monilia 

 fungus, and brown-rot is the 

 most serious trouble the 

 southern peach-grower has 

 to contend with, though with proper spraying it may 

 be held almost entirely in check, and except for the 

 extra expense is not now to be feared as in the earlier 

 days of southern peach-culture. In the ten years from 

 1895 to 1905, probably more than 50 per cent of 

 peaches grown in Georgia rotted on the trees, or else 



2802. A bad form of top. 



reached market in specky condition as the results of 

 monilia fungus. 



The first great crop of Georgia peaches that made a 

 strong impress on all northern markets was in 1889, 

 when the Elberta variety by its large size, great beauty, 

 and fine keeping qualities showed up so strongly for 

 the first time as to outclass all other varieties. Great 

 profits were made and, being reported as even greater, 

 there was a mad rush to plant Elberta, and Elberta 

 only. This was kept up until 1896-7 before it came to 

 be realized that there could be too much of even a good 

 thing. The rushing of a great volume of fruit, no matter 

 how choice, into the markets in two or three weeks, 

 before they had been "toned up" to at least a liberal 

 supply of good fruit, was a business mistake. To 

 remedy this there has been a hunt after a good early 

 variety to precede the Elberta, as well as later ones to 

 follow it. So that, while prior to 1896 more than 75 per 

 cent of the plantings were of Elberta, since that time 

 not more than 15 to 20 per cent of Elberta have been 

 planted. There is a better balance of varieties, and a 

 longer and more profitable season of marketing has been 

 assured. Many early and mid-early varieties growing 

 ten or fifteen years ago have mostly been abandoned, 

 Greensboro, Carman, Hiley and Belle (of Georgia) being 

 varieties most largely grown to precede Elberta. 

 Growers are now beginning to abandon the Greensboro 

 and plant excessively of other extra-early varieties, 

 notably Uneeda, Arp (Arp Beauty or Queen of Dixie), 

 and Early Rose. These varieties having sold at extremely 

 high prices in recent years, there now appears as great a 

 tendency to plant extra-early ripening peaches as there 

 was for the Elberta in the earlier days. 



When loading in cars, the crates are placed side by 

 side about 2H inches apart across the car, taking 

 seven crates. Then two strips of inch-square stuff, just 

 long enough to reach across the car, are put on top of the 

 crates at each end and are lightly nailed down. Tier 

 upon tier is built np in this way, either five or six crates 

 high, until the car is full. Spacing of the crates and 

 the slatting provides space for cold air around each and 

 every crate. In dry seasons, when fruit is free from rot- 

 germs, cars as now constructed can with safety be 

 loaded five crates high, but in wet seasons, with rot 

 prevalent, they arrive in market in much better condi- 

 tion when loaded only four high. Besides the original 

 icing, which requires four to six tons to a car, a re-icing 

 after loading takes one to three tons, depending upon 

 how long the car is loading. A car will hold 448 to 525 

 crates, according to the size of the car and whether 

 loaded four or five crates high. Handled along best 

 modern tines, with careful inspection from start to fin- 

 ish, it costs for the six-basket Georgia carrier, from 30 

 to 35 cents to take peaches ripe from the tree and place 

 them in the car. 



Some peaches of the Crawford type are grown all 

 through the South, but they do not succeed [so well as 

 most others of the Persian strain, and none of the 

 Persians does so well in the far South as the North 

 China strains, to which Carman, Hiley, Early Rose, 

 Belle, and Elberta belong. The South China peaches, 

 to which the Peen-to, Honey, and Angel belong, suc- 

 ceed best in Florida and close along the Gulf Coast. 

 While their bitter-sweet flavor is appreciated by some, 

 they are not generally profitable for market. 



In preparation for marketing the fruit crop, many of 

 the large orchards have railroad side-tracks running 

 to their packing-houses in the orchard; refrigerator 

 cars are brought South, and every available bit of side- 

 track for 300 or 400 miles about is filled with these 

 cars. At leading centers, refrigerator-car people have 

 constructed great ice-storage-houses, with every con- 

 venience for quickly icing and re-icing cars. Agents 

 of these refrigerator-car companies, by frequently driv- 

 ing about among the orchards and keeping in touch 

 with the managers, plan to have enough cars iced and 



