FRUIT CULTURE IN AMERICA 311 



sugar for desert (a dainty dish unknown in Europe), canned, preserved, or dried, 

 the peach is delicious. 



Culture. — The trees are set about 15 to 20 feet apart, trained with low 

 heads and the land thoroughly tilled ; except by those who are too careless to 

 treat them properly. In soils not rich in plant-food, for instance, where it is 

 sandy, it becomes necessary to fertilise. There are various ways of doing this, 

 the most common being, to apply German potash salts, Chilian nitrate of soda, 

 and dissolved phosphate rock ; but some growers find ways of saving the expense 

 of the nitrate, by growing leguminous crops between the trees every few years, 

 such as German clover and peas, which gather nitrogen from the air, and when 

 ploughed under, add not only this important plant-food to the soil, but humus 

 as well. Thorough tillage in most soils helps to unlock the natural fertility 

 already there, but the best peach growers find it profitable to apply manures of 

 some kind. The trees are headed about 12 to 24 inches from the ground, and 

 are kept from making long and straggling growth when in wise hands. The 

 branches are cut back quite severely every year, that there may constantly be 

 an abundance of new wood, as it is only on this that the fruit is borne. Early 

 spring is the season when this work is done in the east and north, but in the 

 southern States and on the Pacific slope, where the winters are usually mild, it 

 is done all through the winter season. 



Thinning the Fruit after it is about one-fourth grown is now a common 

 practice, although only recently adopted, even by the most progressive peach 

 growers. The trees often set so many that they would be broken down and 

 almost ruined or very much weakened. Some unprogressive growers allow 

 this state of things to exist at the present day, but they are gradually coming to 

 see that thinning is profitable from every standpoint. The distance apart for 

 the peaches on the branches is usually about 6 inches, but some of the most 

 advanced growers thin them to 8 and even 10 inches apart. It is the large 

 fruit, containing a large portion of flesh as compared with the stone, 

 that brings most profit to the grower, and satisfaction to the dealer and 

 consumer. 



Varieties. — The varieties most largely grown are Elberta, Mountain Rose, 

 Early Crawford, Chairs, Fitzgerald, Late Crawford, Oldmixon Free, Salway, 

 and Carman. 



The exporting of American peaches has barely begun. A few were sent 

 to England some years ago, but the transportation charges were so great that 

 further attempts have been rare. However, enough has been done to show that 

 it is possible, and it is now being done by the Government in an experimental 

 way, in order to determine the possibilities of the trade under modern methods 

 of refrigeration. A temperature of 32 degs. Fahrenheit seems to give the best 

 results. The shipments to London in 1902 were profitable. It may be that 

 American peaches will yet appear in quantity and at sufficiently low prices for 

 the English public to taste them, if not to eat them freely. 



Nectarines are merely peaches without the usual downy covering. They 

 are grown very rarely in the regions east of the Rocky Mountains, because of 

 the curculio, but on the Pacific side there is no such trouble, and as many are 



