94 THE NEW HORTICULTURE. 



two hundred and fifty miles distant, where they opened up 

 still in good order. All those peaches were grown on sod 

 trees, and if my theory, as to that being the cause of their 

 wonderful carrying qualities, is riot true, then Lampasas is 

 the most remarkable peach country in the world. But I know 

 it is true, for our season was very wet and cultivated fruit 

 rotted just as badly here as elsewhere. But while my peaches 

 were making these remarkable trips by express in the hottest 

 weather, cultivated fruit from East Texas and Georgia was 

 going forward in refrigerator cars and arriving at all markets 

 in such bad condition that little of it brought the charges. 

 An associated press dispatch from New York, July 16, read 

 as follows: "Georgia peaches in heavy receipt. The fruit 

 develops the brown rot very quickly. Lots of green stuff also 

 coming, all covered with rot." Much of that fruit was doubt- 

 less from the cultivated orchards of J. H. Hale, in which 

 Mr. J. Horace McFarland was interested, and, if he is my pub- 

 lisher, I must tell a joke on him. The name of the peaches 

 I sent in his basket was not mentioned, so later I got the fol- 

 lowing letter from him: "The peaches, perfect beauties, 

 came today. We ate the ripest and put the others in a cool 

 room. This peach is certainly very beautiful and seems to be 

 of the Elberta shape and color, but with much more refined 

 flavor. The flesh is thick, pit small, and it and the flesh part 

 readily. Mrs. McFarland remarked at once that it would be 

 a pleasure to can such peaches. What's the name of this 

 peach, please ? " 



But I do not blame him for not recognizing it as a true 

 Elberta, since he had been accustomed only to the shoddy 

 article. The fact that the skin readily parts from a sod- 

 grown Elberta is applicable to all sod-grown peaches, and if 

 dipped a few seconds in boiling water, the skin will slip as 

 readily as that of a tomato. But it will not part from a culti- 

 vated peach. Delighted now, and amazed at my success and 

 its far-reaching consequences, foreshadowing complete 

 emancipation of the fruit-grower from the grinding refrigera- 

 tor-car monopoly, and lessening the cost of production so 

 greatly as to solve forever the problem of profitable market- 



