Localities for the Peach. 229 
limit, and thus replace the trees when about fifteen years of age. 
This is a point which may vary greatly, according to local condi- 
tions. 
Early Productiveness—Quite as important as the longevity 
of the peach tree are the facts of its rapid growth and early pro- 
ductiveness. It is the first of our fruit trees to attain size and 
yield a profitable crop. In localities best suited to its growth 
it will mature some fruit the second summer in the orchard 
if the small shoots are not pruned away from the main branches, 
and during the third summer averages of forty to fifty pounds 
per tree have been secured from considerable acreages. These 
facts are stated to show what the peach of good variety may do 
in a good situation and soil and with the best of care. Of course 
they are not to be taken as average results, although greater 
than those given are sometimes attained. 
LOCALITIES FOR THE PEACH. 
Nearly every county in California reports the possession of 
peach trees. Above an elevation of four thousand feet on the 
sides of the Sierra Nevada, they may be subject to winter kill- 
ing, and lower still careful choice of situation has to be made 
to avoid frosts at blooming-time—the peach in such places be- 
ing subjected to some dangers which beset it in the eastern 
States. Below these points, however, lies the great fruit belt of 
the foot-hills of the Sierra, where the peach is the chief fruit 
grown and its excllence is proverbial. Size, beauty, richness, 
and delicacy of flavor, irmness, which endures carriage to the 
most distant markets, are all characteristics of the foot-hill 
peaches of California. 
In the great interior valleys of the State wherever proper 
condition of soil and water supply can be found, the peach also 
thrives, the tree making a wonderfully quick and large growth, 
and the fruit attaining great size. 
In the small valleys on the west of the great valley and on 
the eastern slopes of the Coast Range, there are also extensive 
areas suited to the peach, and sheltered places on the eastern 
and western edges of the Sacramento Valley have produced the 
earliest fruit for a long series of years. Recently the contest for 
the earliest fruit of these districts, with the foot-hill district on 
the east side of the Sacramento Valley and special locations in 
the upper San Joaquin Valley, has been quite close. 
In the coast valleys, opening upon San Francisco Bay and 
the Pacific Ocean, the peach is also a leading fruit. Its success 
is greatest, however, where good shelter is had from direct coast 
influences. Even where open to these influences, good peaches 
can be grown by choosing the smaller range of varieties, which 
