EFFECTS OF CULTIVATION. 95 



ing of all fruit crops, yet at the same time fearing that pos- 

 sibly climatic conditions here may have had something to do 

 with it, I determined to see whether California, with a still 

 drier climate, could parallel the achievement of my sod 

 peaches with her cultivated ones under a temperature of 100. 



With this in view, I requested our local fruit-dealer to 

 buy one or two crates of California peaches from Houston, 

 ordering that they be sent direct from the refrigerator car on 

 its arrival there. Accordingly, on August 15, a few days after 

 the return of my Los Angeles basket, the two crates arrived, 

 having been taken from the iced car at 7 P. M., and delivered to 

 the Express Company in Houston at once, reaching here the 

 next morning. Being notified, I went down and saw the 

 crates opened, in one of which were five sound peaches, and 

 seven in the other, the balance all more or less rotten in a 

 single night. The peaches were large yellow clings, but so 

 bitter from being picked too green that they were not fit to 

 eat. I at once sent Farm and Ranch one rotten and one sound 

 one, who will testify to their condition. Here, then, was the 

 proof that climatic conditions had nothing to do with the 

 shipping qualities of my peaches, which went to Los Angeles 

 and back by express in good order, while California, with 

 a still drier climate, could not under our high temperature 

 get her cultivated ones here sound, even in a refrigerator 

 car with no handling, to say nothing of a return trip. Now, 

 what was the reason ? Plainly, as I said before, either 

 Lampasas is the best peach country in the world, or else 

 cultural conditions did it. 



But, to demonstate still further that sod fruit is immune 

 to rot, I smeared rotten peaches from a neighbor's -tree all 

 over many of mine green, half-ripe and full ripe and in not 

 a single case did ihe disease "take ;" the rotten mass simply 

 drying up, leaving my fruit as sound as before. Still not 

 satisfied, I inoculated green and ripe fruit ; the green failed 

 entirely to "take," but the ripe ones were slowly infected, 

 requiring eight days to produce a rotten spot as large as a 

 pea. Now, what does all this mean to the fruit-grower ? 

 Why, simply that the horticultural millenium has dawned, 



