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PEACH 



PEACH 



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 2 or 3 

 weeks, and in the case of the season of 1900 it rained for 

 6 weeks right through the main part of the Peach har- 

 vest. Hot sun between showers and the general mug- 

 giness of a warm climate rapidly breed the monilia 

 fungus, and brown rot is prevalent on every fruiting 

 tree. Spraying with straight Bordeaux mixture just 

 before the buds swell in the spring, and once or twice 

 more when the fruit is developing with Bordeaux hav- 



1674. Peach packing. The Climax basket (Michigan). 



ing an excess of lime, is practiced by a few, and holds 

 the rot in check to a considerable extent. Besides the 

 sprays in the Hale orchard, if rot appears, we go over 

 the fruiting trees every day or two, and gather and burn 

 all fruit showing even the smallest speck of rot, and in 

 this way secure much more sound fruit than when 

 only the spraying is practiced. In a majority of orchards, 

 however, neither spraying nor picking the rot is prac- 

 ticed, and the loss of fruit is often from 50 to 80 per 

 cent of the entire crop. 



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 mat- 

 ter how choice, into the markets in 2 or 3 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 for the past four years a hnnt 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 varie- 

 ties, and a longer and more profitable season of mar- 

 keting has been assured. A few Alexanders are yet 

 planted and open the season late in May. Triumph, 

 ripening a few days later, has been largely planted ; it 

 suffered most from rot in 1900, and while of good size 

 and very fine quality, from its "woolly" appearance and 

 early decay, it thoroughly demoralized the early mar- 

 kets; and when the thousands upon thousands of Tri- 

 umph trees not yet in fruiting come into bearing a de- 

 moralization of early southern Peaches is sure to result, 

 that will take several weeks of each Peach season for the 

 markets to recover from, after better varieties begin 

 to come along. Early Kivers, coming to much higher 

 color in the South than in central and northern states, 

 has always been very profitable. 



The little Tillotson, that mildews its foliage in the 

 North so as to be a general failure, conies to a perfec- 

 tion of tree and fruitage in the South; the bright red 



little Peaches, seldom more than an inch and a half in 

 diameter, rich, sweet and delicious, are really the first 

 extra good Peaches to find their way to market. Greens- 

 boro a little earlier, and Hieley and Waddell a few days 

 later, are all very large and beautiful early Peaches, 

 that are being extensively planted. Carman, of extra 

 size and great beauty, follows a little later; while St. 

 John, Mountain Rose. Tlmrber, Belle of Georgia, El- 

 berta and Stump, make up most of the rest of heavy 

 planting ; while Emma and Frances are being most 

 largely planted to close up the season from the 1st to 

 the 10th of August. Some Peaches of the Crawford 

 type are grown all through the South, but they do not 

 succeed as well as most others of the Persian strain, 

 and none of the Persians do as well in the far South as 

 the North China strains, to which Waddell, Thurber, 

 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 three or four hundred miles about is filled with 

 these cars. At leading centers, refrigerator car people 

 have constructed great ice storage houses, with every 

 convenience 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 up 

 and cooled off so as to be ready for each day's demand, 

 and by placing an order with the railroad agent the 

 night before, the orchardist may have one or a dozen 

 refrigerator cars delivered on his side-track in the 

 morning. For smaller shippers, who cannot load in car 

 lots, the railroads keep at all times in season refrigera- 

 tor cars on siding at each station in the Peach district, 

 into which any number of shippers may load ; more 

 often there will be a number of such cars loading at the 

 same time, so that a shipper may have a choice as to 

 which market he will consign his fruit. Except in the 

 height of the season, these cars are often two and seme- 

 times three days in loading, and the continued opening 

 of the car to put in small lots of fruit prevents perfect 

 refrigeration; consequently fruit from small shippers 

 more often goes to market in bad order than from the 

 larger orchards, where a car can be quickly loaded and 

 at once closed up, not to be opened until ready for sale 

 in some northern market. In the Hale orchards a car 

 is often loaded in an hour, and very little of the fruit 

 is ever so long as two hours passing from the tree 

 through the assorting and packing houses to the car. 

 For ten successive mornings, season of 1900, there were 

 picked, graded and nailed up in crates, and the doors 

 closed and sealed up, three car-loads before eight o'clock 

 in the morning; seven o'clock and fifty-four minutes 

 was the latest, and seven thirty-five the earliest finish. 

 Only by a lively start at daylight can such work be ac- 

 complished. 



In some of the smaller orchards, fruit is packed in 

 crates or baskets right under the trees, and then hauled 

 in open wagons, often without springs, to the railroad 

 station. In others, some of the old farm buildings are 

 used as packinghouses; more often special fruit houses 

 are used, their size depending upon the requirements 

 of the orchards, while in style and convenience more 

 depends upon the intelligence of the orchardists and 

 desire to handle the fruit rapidly in best possible man- 

 ner. The picking basket most generally used is a shal- 

 low, round basket, with a drop handle, and holding 

 about a half -bushel. With good refrigerator cars and 

 prompt railroad service, fruit is now allowed to come 

 to full maturity on the tree, and is picked just before it 

 begins to soften. 



In the Hale orchard expert pickers instruct all new 

 workers how to judge by the color on the shady side 

 of a Peach, when it is ripe for the harvest ; then 

 each picking gang is in charge of a foreman, who is 

 ever on the alert to secure uniformity in the work. 

 Each picker is numbered, and has a little canvas 

 bag with his number stenciled on it, and filled with 



