HORTICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS AT SAN ANTONIO. 5 



varieties of pears could be used in the farmer's orchard with the 

 expectation of securing reasonably good results. Persimmons, when 

 worked on resistant stocks, do well and produce fruit nearly every 

 year. Pecans are native here, and while they probably can not be 

 grown successfully on the uplands without an outlay for irrigation 

 that would be prohibitive, they can be grown on the low lands, where 

 there is ground water within reach of the roots. Dewberries should 

 be included in the farmer's garden and by selecting several of the 

 better varieties should prove a valuable addition to the fruit supply 

 for his table. 



Owing to the demand made upon the experiment farm for all the 

 information available regarding the possibilities of fruit culture in this 

 section, it has seemed best to include the information available regard- 

 ing many other fruits which have been tested, but not sufficiently to 

 ascertain how large a part they will play in the fruit production of 

 the region. 



In some instances, for example apples and cherries, there is no 

 information at hand that would indicate that they should be added 

 to the farmer's orchards; in fact, the weight of evidence is against 

 them. In the case of other and less common fruits, such as the 

 citrange, there is a lack of information regarding how they will behave 

 under local conditions. 



VARIETY TESTS. 

 PEACH SELECTIONS. 



The experimental work with peaches has shown some of the reasons 

 why this crop has not been generally successful in the San Antonio 

 region. Notwithstanding the fact that the trees often grow well, 

 particularly when young, it appears that the standard varieties of the 

 North seldom fruit in this region and are slow to develop flowering 

 buds. They also show other irregularities, such as blossoming in the 

 autumn and early winter, or the blossoms may be delayed until very 

 late in the spring. This lack of adaptability is such as to disqualify 

 many varieties and limit the selection to sorts that do not show these 

 tendencies. With a few exceptions, the varieties of the Persian, 

 North China, and Peen-to races have shown this undesirable new- 

 place effect or for one reason or another have not been productive. 

 On the other hand, varieties of the Spanish and South China races, 

 and especially some of the better seedlings from these varieties, have 

 been found much better adapted to San Antonio conditions. Not all 

 of the varieties of these last two races are satisfactory, however, 

 particularly some of those of the Spanish group. A few of them, 

 particularly of the South China race, are highly susceptible to chlo- 

 rosis, and some varieties of both races have proved to be shy bearers 

 or to yield inferior or mediocre fruit. 



