XV 

 CHOOSING VARIETIES 



THE American list of varieties of peaches harmon- 

 izes with the whole American business of peach cul- 

 ture. That is, it is larger and more liberal than the 

 list of varieties offered in any other country where 

 peaches are known. Furthermore, it is distinctly 

 American. So far as I can recall there is not a sin- 

 gle well-known variety in cultivation in America at 

 the present day which did not originate on this con- 

 tinent. In the entire list of about 200 varieties 

 recommended by the American Pomological Society, 

 six are of European and one of Chinese origin. Of 

 the six European sorts, Rivers (Early Rivers) is 

 probably the only one which could be found in any 

 current nursery catalog. The Chinese variety, 

 Chinese Cling, is best known as the parent of many 

 of our promising modern varieties such as Greens- 

 boro, Carman and Champion. The situation in this 

 respect is very different from that which we find 

 in the apple list or plum list. In the apple orchard 

 or the plum orchard we find growing many impor- 

 tant varieties of European or Asiatic origin. 



This excessive preponderance of American varie- 

 ties in our peach list shows that this fruit has been 

 very fully acclimatized on this continent. To all in- 

 tents and purposes it is an American fruit. The 

 mere fact that its distant parentage traces back to 

 Asia hardly counts. Very few of us who grow 

 peaches can trace our parentage back very far with- 

 out ceasing to be Americans. 



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