34 THE AMERICAN PEACH ORCHARD 



lighter, sandier soils for northern climates, we will 

 have marked out a standard of judgment which 

 will be fairly safe in selecting peach lands anywhere 

 north of Pennsylvania, Missouri and Kansas. 



In order to give a somewhat simpler basis of com- 

 parison to a wider geographical range, we may say 

 that so far as soil quality is concerned, land well 

 suited to corn and cotton growing will prove satis- 

 factory for peaches. This refers to the quality of 

 the soil only and not to the location, altitude or ex- 

 posure. The best corn lands, to be sure, are often 

 the flat bottoms along rivers, whereas peach orchards 

 succeed only on similar soils placed on higher eleva- 

 tions and suitably drained slopes. 



My friend, Mr. H. J. Wilder, of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, when asked about this subject 

 of soils for peaches, made the following statement : 



"It is a matter of common observation that 

 peaches require a deep, mellow soil ; but what con- 

 stitutes those conditions on a soil that could be 

 classed as fairly strong, thereby favoring a satis- 

 factory growth of tree to yield a maximum amount 

 of high quality fruit, with lowest cost for maintain- 

 ing the productivity of the soil, is not so easy to 

 determine. Bed rock anywhere near the surface is 

 bad, though stones do no harm. Many orchards in 

 West Virginia, western Maryland and Pennsyl- 

 vania are underlain by unbroken shale at 18 to 30 

 inches. They suffer in all weather extremes either 

 wet or dry. Impervious, clayey subsoils are nearly 

 as bad. Friable clay loams or sandy clays are the 

 heaviest subsoils that should be used, and when 

 overlain by a foot or so of sandy loam or fine sandy 

 loam, they give good results. Many of the Georgia 

 orchards are so located. 



"A desirable range of soils adapted to peaches 



