XVII 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF PEACHES 



SYSTEMATIC study of varieties of peaches in 

 this country is of recent origin. Apparently 

 the first important contribution to the subject 

 was made by Professor R. H. Price, in his 

 Texas Experiment Station Bulletin 39, pub- 

 lished in 1896. In this he proposes to divide 

 the cultivated peaches into several natural 

 groups. These groups he characterizes fully, 

 and into them he distributes a majority of 

 the varieties then known in Texas. All the 

 more recent classifications have been founded 

 on this one, and are like it in some degree. 

 In his "Cyclopedia of American Horticul- 

 ture" (3: 1227), published in 1901, Professor 

 L. H. Bailey gives a natural classification for 

 peaches very closely modeled on the Price 

 classification. In W. G. Johnson'sbook, " The 

 Peach Crop,"* the present writer in turn 

 has outlined a natural classification of peaches, 

 which, with a few changes of names and de- 

 scriptive terms, follows the same outline. It 



*Orange Judd Co., New York. 



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