6 BULLETIN 298, TJ. S. DEPAETMBISTT OF AGBICULTUBE. 



Delaware and New Jersey peaches are properly so called, since the 

 shipping district in each case covers a large part of the State. Com- 

 mercially, however, they constitute essentially one crop, all produced 

 under similar climatic conditions and naturally supplying the same 

 markets. 



The Michigan, Ohio, and New York peach-shipping regions could 

 be more accurately described as the Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and 

 Lake Ontario districts. In each case heavy shipments originate 

 chiefly in a narrow belt close to the lake and are confined to a ver}- 

 small part of the agricultural area of the State. 



Missouri peaches are not essentially different from the bulk of the 

 Arkansas and a part of the Oklahoma crop. Most of the shipments 

 of the three States could fairly be called Ozark peaches. Texas has 

 a distinct shipping area in a region of lower altitudes and earlier 

 season. 



Colorado as a whole is not a peach State. It has an important 

 shipping area, but it is almost wholly confined to two counties. 



If the commercial movement of the peach crop of the country is 

 to be reported daily with a degree of accuracy which will assist 

 materially in its distribution and marketing, the chief shipping areas 

 should be grouped somewhat as follows: 



(1) Southeastern— Including the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, 



Alabama, and eastern Tennessee. 



(2) Southwestern — Including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Okla- 



homa, and Missouri. 



(3) Eastern — Including Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, 



Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Connecticut. 



(4) New York. 



(5) Lake districts — Michigan and Ohio. 



(6) Mountain districts — Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. 



(7) California. 



(8) Northwestern — Including Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. 

 It would be logical to include New York shipments in the Lake 



district, but the trade is accustomed to think of the New York crop 

 as a separate unit in the national supply. 



The suggested grouping provides for practically all car-lot move- 

 ment except from a few localities of minor importance in Kentucky, 

 western Tennessee, southern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and West Vir- 

 ginia. These points might constitute a ninth group — the Ohio 

 Valley. 



PRESENTATION OF THE DATA. 



The tabulated statement which is placed at the end of the bulletin 

 shows the peach-shipping stations, and the number of cars reported 

 as shipped from each point during the 1914 season, classified by 

 States and to some extent by shipping districts. No attempt has 



