THE CHERRY, PLUM, PRUKE, APRICOT, AND PEAOH. 185 



fruit, that was five feet and three inches in circumference 

 of trunk. 



Samarkand is about on tlie 40th parallel, at an eleva- 

 tion of about two thousand feet above the sea. But it is 

 in a river valley, near the centre of the broad continent, 

 where the summers are hotter and drier than in Iowa and 

 the winters will average much colder and drier. As this 

 region is now accessible, the apricots of central Asia should 

 be tested, especially the varieties latest to bloom in spring. 



185. The Peach. — To an extent not realized with any of 

 the stone fruits, the peach is now a commercial fruit in 

 every village, city, and mining and lumber camp of the 

 Union. Yet the immense supply comes mainly from a 

 few peach-growing centres. Prominent among these are 

 the Michigan fruit-belt, the Long Island and Chesapeake 

 peninsular belt, the ridge lands of part of Georgia and 

 Alabama, and the Pacific coast. Yet the peach is gi-own 

 across the continent by home-growers and locally in a 

 commercial way. As stated of other stone fruits we may, 

 in the near future, secure hardier varieties of equal size 

 and quality of fruit from the original home of the species 

 in central Asia and northwestern China. Our commercial 

 varieties are derived from the original introductions from 

 southern Persia, and they dc> not differ materially in 

 hardiness of tree or fruit buds. Bat equally good varieties 

 we now know are found far north of Persia in central 

 Asia. Albert Eegel says: "In Darvas the peach forms 

 tops thirty feet high, with broad spread of branches. The 

 rough-skinned giant peaches of the garden of Kalaichumb 

 are of unsurpassed lusciousness and aroma and most invit- 

 ing bloom. They attain the size of an average apple. 

 The number of rough-skinned varieties is considerable. 

 The yellow peaches are especially sweet." 



As the points here named are the original home of such 



