I02 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



have seen, were cultivated by the Indians, in the lake regions of western 

 New York. In 1828 the Domestic Horticultural Society, the third such 

 organization in America, was organized in Geneva, having for its field ten 

 counties in western New York.' The Monroe County Horticultural 

 Society was organized in 1830,^ and in 1831 the Genesee Farmer avd 

 Gardener's Journal came into existence. These institutions bore fruit, 

 more literally bore orchards, and a taste for horticulture, which, together 

 with the nurseries that by this time were being established in the salubrious 

 climate and excellent soil of western New York, gave a perfection in fruit- 

 growing long unrivalled in America and now equalled only in California. 



Of the history of commercial peach-growing in western New York, 

 it can only be said that there has been such an industry since 1800. The 

 product of the orchards of the first quarter-century went, for most part, 

 to the brandy-still, for the second quarter it was used at home and for 

 local markets and from then on, since 1850, or a little before, the region 

 has been well to the front in the peach-markets of eastern United States. 

 Changes in the commerce of the continent have made great changes in the 

 peach-industry in New York. In 1825 the opening of the Erie Canal made 

 western New York the granary of eastern United States — wheat was 

 more profitable than peaches. Twenty-five years later millions of bushels 

 of wheat from the plains, carried through the Great Lakes and the Erie 

 Canal to the sea, began to drive wheat out of western New York and make 

 the peach more profitable. This is a fine illustration of the fact that 

 transportation is often as important a factor as soil or climate in the profit- 

 able production of a crop. Until figures were taken by census enumerators, 

 the history of the peach -industry could be written only by giving innumer- 

 able items taken at random from newspapers of the times. The present 

 status of peach-growing in this region is to be discussed in a future chapter. 



Another large commercial peach-region is to be found along the shore 

 of Lake Erie in Ohio. The peach has been cultivated very generally in 

 Ohio since the first settlements there more than a century ago and the 

 industry assumed commercial importance in a dozen or more centers as 

 early, at least, as 1867, when the assessors' returns showed a total crop for 

 the State of 1,402,849 bushels.^ But what is now known as the peach- 

 belt along the shores of Lake Erie is largely a growth of comparatively 



' New England Farmer 7:174. 



* Mag. Hon. 5:12. 



» Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt. 61. i8( 



