Quality Peaches for the Home Garden — By J. r. Mattem, 3c 



•ylvania 



SELECTING VARIETIES TO SUIT THE ACTUAL CONDITIONS AND AT THE SAME 

 TIME TO PROVIDE FOR A SUCCESSION OF FRUIT OVER THE LONGEST SEASON 



T 



' HE elixir is 

 wonderful 

 —the rich, 

 fragrant 

 juice of a peach that 

 has hung in the full 

 sun on the tree un- 

 til it is dead ripe. 

 If your acquaint- 

 ance with peaches is 

 limited to those that 

 have been shipped 

 you have this joy 

 yet to meet. Beauti- 

 ful, winey, fat-look- 

 ing, glorious when 

 fully grown and en- 

 tirely colored, and 

 just getting soft — 

 Adam must have 

 been an easy mark 

 to "fall" for Eve's 

 apple. Yet, on second thought, such 

 wonderfully fine peaches as we have now 

 were developed only within the last two 

 generations. 



The home fruit garden is just the place 

 to grow peaches. There you can let them 

 reach their best before you touch them. 

 During the last few days before the fruits 

 begin to get soft on the trees, the sun and 

 wind are very busy with their chemistry, 

 adding extra sweetness and flavor. Home- 

 grown peaches reach your table clean of 

 disease germs and free from the wasteful 

 and unsightly bruises that fruit gets in ship- 

 ping, and it is possible to grow in your gar- 

 den certain of the finer-quality varieties that 

 cannot be shipped at all with satisfaction. 

 The number of peach trees you should 

 plant depends on the needs of your family 

 unless your garden is too small to hold even 

 enough for this. Unlike apples, their 

 season of use is short. If the housewife 

 does not care to can or preserve large 

 quantities, three or four bushels will be 



about all you can use, and this quantity 

 of fruit will grow on three or four trees. 

 Four-year-old peach trees should bear 

 more than a bushel each, and when the 

 trees are three years old they should yield 

 a half bushel each. Some varieties, such 

 as Mayflower, the all-over red peach, will 

 bear a dozen or more fruits when the trees 

 are two years old. Four trees, then, are 

 enough for the average small garden. It is 

 only the acre garden that should have more 

 than this number. Twelve or fifteen trees, 

 with their yields of eight to twenty bushels, 

 are enough for any home, and if you plant so 

 many you should make provision for 

 canning or preserving upward of three 

 hundred quarts. 



The South, of course, is more of a peach 

 country than the North, and a Southern 

 garden should contain two or three more 

 peach trees than a Northern garden. But 

 peaches are not failures in the North, by 

 any means, and even in Ontario and New 

 Brunswick they are quite satisfactory 

 when hardy varieties are selected and 

 proper care taken to protect the trees in 

 winter. Indeed, the only parts of the 

 country where peaches can not be grown 

 successfully in home gardens are the states 

 of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, 

 and Montana, and Canada to the north 

 of them. Even in these cold sections 

 quite a lot of fruit can be grown by laying 

 the trees down and covering them with 

 earth each fall. The trees at four or five 

 years old have ten or twelve feet of limb 

 spread, in any section, and they should 

 not be set closer than twelve to fifteen 

 feet. The foliage is thick enough to shade 

 to death any plants under the trees, so 

 plant the trees on the north or west side 

 of your garden, along the boundary. 



In selecting varieties the problem is 

 somewhat different from that with apples. 

 Peach trees thrive in almost any soil if 

 they are given good cultivation. Some 



few sorts do best in certain soils, and these 

 preferences are indicated in the table of 

 varieties accompanying this article. But 

 you can grow peaches in any kind of 

 "dirt" when you provide the all-important 

 tillage. If you feel that you might neglect 

 to keep the surface of the ground in a dust 

 mulch condition, you had better choose 

 the coarser and yellow-fleshed varieties. 

 Success with fine-flavored varieties that 

 home gardens ought to contain requires 

 that the soil receive a thorough deep till- 

 age in the spring and a raking after every 

 rain or at least every week all summer. 



For the North select varieties known to 

 be hardy, such as Belle of Georgia, Crosby 

 and J. H. Hale. For the South you may 

 plant any variety on the list given here, 

 except Hiley, Crosby, Gold Drop and 

 Kalamazoo. Mountain sections are north- 

 ern sections to the extent of their elevation. 

 Each five hundred feet altitude above 

 sea level equals in effect on the trees the 

 influence of about sixty-six miles north, and 

 as far as fruit growing is concerned, 

 the lowlands of Connecticut and Long 

 Island are farther south than many points 

 in the mountains of Virginia. Large bodies 

 of water influence "peach climate," just 

 as they do "apple climate," and in this 

 we have the explanation of the splendid 

 success of peaches in Michigan, Ohio, New 

 York, and the "fruit belt" of Ontario 

 along the lake front. As a general rule 

 late varieties reach their greatest perfec- 

 tion on high land and in mountainous 

 sections, while early sorts develop best in 

 coast countries. 



The most important consideration is to 

 cover the season from early to late with 

 ripe peaches. The table given here divides 

 the varieties into four classes. The first 

 class begins to ripen at the forty-first 

 degree of north latitude about the first 

 of July, and each succeeding class begins 

 about three weeks later. Two degrees 









VARIETIES OF PEACHES FOR HOME GARDENS 







NAME 



RIPE 



COLOR FLESH 



SIZE 



ELEVATION 



LATITUDE 



USE 



QUALITY 



SOIL 



REMARKS 



Eureka 



First 



Yellow 



Small 



Low 



South 



Raw 



Fine 



Any 



For central West 



Carman .... 



First 



White 



Medium 



Low 



South 



Raw 



Good 



Loam 



Good anywhere 



Mayflower .... 



First 



Yellow 



Medium 



Low 



North 



Raw 



High 



Any 



Red as a cherry 





First 



Yellow 



Medium 



Low 



South 



Raw 



Extra 



Loam 



Golden color 



Red Bird Cling . . 



First 



White 



Large 



Low 



North 



Can 



Extra 



Any 



Very Handsome 



Greensboro 



First 



White 



Medium 



High 



North 



Raw 



Extra 



All 



Highest quality 



Champion .... 



Second 



White 



Large 



High 



North 



Raw 



Splendid 



Any 



Fine anywhere 



Alton 



Second 



White 



Large 



Low 



North 



Raw 



Good 



Any 



For central West 







White 



Large 



Low 



South 



Raw 



Fine 



Loam 



South Atlantic section 



Hiley 



Second 



White 



Medium 



High 



North 



Raw 



Fine 



Any 



For North only 



J. H. Hale .... 



Second 



Yellow 



Large 



High 



North 



Raw 



Fine 



Any 



Hardy 



Fitzgerald 



Third 



Yellow 



Medium 



Low 



North 



Raw 



Extra 



Heavy 



High quality 





. Third 



Yellow 



Large 



High 



North 



Can 



Fair 



Any 



Coarse 



Elberta 



Third 



Yellow 



Large 



Low 



South 



Can 



Fair 



Any 



Poor quality 



Reeves' Favorite . 



Third 



Yellow 



Large 



Low 



South 



Raw 



Fine 



Loam 



High quality 





Third 



White 



Large 



High 



North 



Raw 



Fine 



All 



Good anywhere 



Crawford Late 



Third 



Yellow 



Large 



Low 



South 



Raw- 



Extra 



Clay 



Demands clay soil 



Iron Mountain 



Third 



White 



Large 



High 



North 



Raw 



Extra 



Light 



Penna.. and South 



Belle of Georgia . 



Third 



White 



Large 



High 



North 



Raw 



Fair 



Any 



Thrives everywhere 



Kalamazoo 



Third 



Yellow 



Medium 



Low 



North 



Can 



Fair 



Any 



For Michigan 



Crosby .... 



Fourth 



Yellow 



Large 



High 



North 



Raw 



Good 



Any 



For North only 



Gold Drop . . . 



Fourth 



Yellow 



Medium 



Low 



North 



Can 



Good 



Any 



Michigan and New York 



Wonderful 



Fourth 



White 



Large 



High 



North 



Raw 



Extra 



Heavy 



Hardy 





Fourth 



Yellow 



Large 



Low 



South 



Raw 



Finest 



Any 



Good North 



Chair's Choice 



Fourth 



Yellow 



Large 



Low 



South 



Raw 



Fair 



Clay 



South of Virginia 



Krummel 



Fourth 



Yellow 



Large 



High 



North 



Raw 



Extra 



Any 



Thrives anywhere 



Salway .... 



Fourth 



Yellow 



Large 



Low 



South 



Raw 



Good 



Any 



N. Y. and South 



Heath Cling . . . 



Fourth 



White 



Large 



High 



North 



Raw 



Extra 



Any 



Thrives anywhere 



