CHAPTER XVII. 



The Peach. 



FOR some unexplained reason, the Persian strain of 

 peaches, so successful elsewhere over the United States, 

 is a total failure in lower South Texas, and especially 

 along the coast. The trees grow well, but are all very back- 

 ward in starting off in spring, and form but few fruit buds. 

 I do not know of a single productive tree of any of these 

 varieties in this whole section. A fine, large Elberta, on Mr. 

 I. Aiken's grounds at Hitchcock, now six years old, has 

 never borne over a dozen peaches at a crop, and has not that 

 many on the tree the present season. However, though we 

 may not grow the Persian varieties successfully, still we are 

 not without kinds that will afford a succession, if not of extra 

 large peaches, still most excellent ones in quality, and unsur- 

 passed in productiveness and regularity of bearing. I allude 

 to the Waldo, Angel, Imperial and Climax, of the Peen-to 

 and Honey strains. Those are all freestones. The Triena is 

 a red-fleshed cling, about the same size as the above, and the 

 best clingstone of those strains. While the catalogues con- 

 tain an additional list of a great number of these hybrids, 

 they are all practically identical with the above or inferior to 

 them, and ripen precisely at the same time. It is claimed 

 that the Jewell is about a week earlier than Waldo, but 

 proved no earlier with me, and has the bad fault of blooming 

 several weeks ahead of the Waldo. The above are all of the 

 Chinese Peen-to and Honey types. In addition to them, 

 recent experiments have shown that several Chinese hybrids 

 are also very productive in the Gulf region. The Chinese 

 Free, Thurber and Family Favorite are the cream of this type, 

 and will furnish the best and largest peaches yet found that 

 bear well this far South. Though the season has been ex- 

 ceedingly dry, these varieties were heavily loaded with large 



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