98 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



CHAPTER m 



COMMERCIAL PEACH-GROWING IN AMERICA 



Commercial peach-growing began in America early in the Nineteenth 

 Century. About this time, it will be remembered, budded trees began to 

 take the place of seedlings. Named varieties appeared as a consequence 

 of budding and, as nurseries sprang up in the settled parts of the country, 

 varieties multiplied at a rapid rate. After the year 1800 we read less about 

 peaches as food for hogs and less about peach-products for assuaging the 

 thirst for strong drink. As cities and towns built up, market demands 

 increased and money-making began to quicken the charms of peach- 

 growing. With the coming of extensive plantings and intensive culture in 

 commercial orchards, new and menacing pests and other problems began 

 to appear at every turn. Before the middle of the centiiry, commercial 

 peach-growing was in full swing in the Chesapeake peach-belt and in its 

 infancy in several westward regions. Stories of great success now filled 

 the papers, " peach kings " abounded, and, with the retiom of good times 

 following the Civil War, fruit-growers indulged in a saturnalia of peach- 

 tree planting. The rouge of speculation made the industry doubly attrac- 

 tive. An account of the rise of commercial peach-growing in America 

 cannot help but be of interest and, besides, it is only by the study of the 

 past of the industry that we can draw safe conclusions for the future. 



Peach-growing on a commercial scale in the United States began in 

 what is known as the Peninsula, consisting, technically, of the Eastern 

 Shore of Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey but horticulturaUy, 

 because of similitude of soil, climate and products, taking in a bit of Vir- 

 ginia, touching eastern Pennsylvania and running up to Long Island. 

 All of this region, including the southern reaches of the Hudson, may be 

 considered as one commercial territory. The peach began its tmdis- 

 puted supremacy among fruits in the orchards of the Peninsula as early 

 as orchards were planted but, beginning with 1800, the industry pushed 

 ahead with leaps and bounds so that the figures at times remind one of 

 Alice in Wonderland when she drank from the magic bottle and immedi- 

 ately grew to gigantic proportions. 



In 1800 an orchard of 20,000 trees was set in Anne Arundel Covinty, 

 Maryland, the product to be used in brandy-making.^ The last peach- 



> Gould, H. P. Md. Sta. Bui. 72:129. 1901. 



