92 An American Fruit-Farm 



quality that determine the selection of varieties. 

 The rich yellow, crimson, pink, free-stone, firm 

 juicy peach is always in good demand. Very early 

 peaches are usually cling-stones, fair in color but 

 rather tasteless, or even bitter. The money-mak- 

 ing peach is the late, canning peach. The house- 

 wife never cans the early peach. She waits till the 

 fruit shall be cheaper and suddenly discovers that 

 the season is quite past and she has not yet put up 

 her peaches. This makes a market for the later 

 and, one may say, better varieties.^ 



In planting peaches one must observe the same 

 caution as in planting plums, — one, two, possibly 

 three standard varieties for commercial profit, — 

 say Dewey, Elberta, or Crawford, but never a 

 mere mixture of varieties. An acre of peaches, or 

 many acres, can be most effectively cared for if 

 of one kind. The labor bill compels this economy. 

 It is best to harvest a thousand bushels at one time 

 than one bushel a thousand different times. There 

 is money in peaches but not always in peach or- 

 chards. In the peach belt anyone can raise peaches 

 if he can raise peach trees, successfully warding off 

 yellows, curl-leaf, borer, brown rot, scale, root-gall, 

 and the new diseases the summer may bring forth. 

 The first question is whether your land lies within 



* One may prudently consult successful peach-growers as to varieties. 

 The Crawford, early and late; Hale's Early, Alexander, Elberta, 

 Oldmixon, Stump the World, Gold Drop, Smock, Early Rivers, Cham- 

 pion, Belle of Georgia, Captain Ede, Fitzgerald, Admiral Dewey, Foster, 

 Morris White, Wheat, and Mountain Rose are standard varieties. A 

 peach calendar may be made out, like the plum, so that the household 

 may have peaches from mid- July until snow flies. 



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