58 APPLES AND PEACHES IN THE OZARK REGION". 



The fruit when well grown is large in size; color yellow, washed with mixed red, 

 nearly the entire surface being covered in well-colored specimens with a suggestion 

 of striping and overspread of gray; flesh yellow, subacid, good; season winter. As 

 a winter sort, however, it is made less valuable than it would otherwise be by its 

 marked susceptibility to "scald" when in storage. For this reason it is not a satis- 

 factory cold-storage apple. The danger of scald is reduced to a minimum, however, 

 when the fruit is well matured and highly colored at time of picking and is then stored 

 promptly. The quicker the fruit can be cooled after picking to the usual storage 

 temperature for apples the better all varieties will keep, other things being equal. 



The value of this variety for Ozark conditions is open to some question. Though 

 it produces good crops of attractive and well-finished apples in some seasons it does 

 not appear to be entirely adapted to this region, at least under the prevailing cultural 

 methods. The trees sometimes set very full of fruit, and thinning is necessary in order 

 to develop to sufficient size; there is some tendency for the fruit to drop unduly; 

 and though the color is fairly good in a favorable season, it is not as high, as a rule, as 

 it is in some other regions where this variety is extensively grown. Moreover, the 

 apples are apt to be very uneven in size, even on the same tree, many being so small 

 that they must be culled out in packing. While this is a common tendency in most 

 regions, it appears to be somewhat intensified in many instances in the Ozark region. 

 This variety, however, probably has greater possibilities for Ozark conditions than 

 has heretofore been realized for it in most of the orchards which contain it. In order 

 to realize these possibilities it should not be allowed to overbear. It should be sprayed 

 systematically -with a view to the influence which proper spraying has to prevent 

 the dropping of the fruit; and in many cases better cultural methods aside from 

 spraying are doubtless essential to the production of best results. 



IMPORTANT VARIETIES OF PEACHES. 



Among the tree fruits grown in the Ozark region the peach holds a 

 place which is second in importance compared with the apple. 

 The census figures given in Table I (p. 7) show the relative impor- 

 tance of these fruits, at least numerically, as they existed in the 

 census years of 1890, 1900, and 1910. While there is a marked 

 concentration of the peach industry at certain points, of which the 

 Koshkonong district in Oregon County, Mo., and the Van Buren- 

 Fort Smith district in Arkansas are notable examples, there is 

 hardly a section in the entire Ozark region where commercial fruit 

 interests have been developed in which they are not grown to 

 some extent. In sections where strawberries are an important com- 

 mercial fruit they are commonly used as an interplanted crop in 

 young peach orchards, as shown in Plate V, figure 2. 



In some respects the variety problem in growing peaches is even 

 greater than it is with apples. In general, it is probably true that 

 most of the well-known peach varieties have a wider range of adapt- 

 ability than the majority of apple varieties. Though the adapta- 

 bility factor must be carefully considered, yet the most serious 

 problem in choosing varieties to plant is often more largely in con- 

 nection with selecting those that mature at particular times than 

 it is in selecting those which reach a good degree of perfection in 



