174 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The southern portion, extending as is does to a point south of Richmond, 
Virginia, gives an earliness to its products that frequently places them in 
Chicago and other cities in time to secure good prices. 
The peach is at home in this latitude and soil, and thrives exceedingly 
well. No case of yellows has ever been found here. The only drawback to* 
its culture are late spring frosts and curculio. The latter can be destroyed 
and the fruit saved by collecting and killing the beetles on corn cobs, chips,, 
pieces of bark, etc., placed on the ground touching the trunks of the trees. 
The bugs can be readily found under these each morning and killed. 
Of varieties of peaches, Elberta**, Ede**, Oldmixon Free**, Thur- 
ber**, Reeves Favorite** and Smock** are generally planted and are deserv- 
edly popular. May Beauty, the Crawfords, Picquet and Champion are also 
planted, while varieties like Alexander, Hale. Scliumaker, Waterloo, Briggs 
May, etc., are virtually discarded. 
Pears thrive unusually well and, were it not for the blight, the output 
would possibly be beyond the demand. Varieties succeeding are Anjou, 
Angouleme, Bose, Flemish Beauty and Rostiezer. Bartlett, Howell and Louise 
Bonne are so subject to blight as to be practically worthless here and are but 
little planted. The variety most planted now is the Kieft'er, but how long its 
good looks will atone for lack of quality time alone can tell. 
Of apples the early varieties are in the lead for the reason that our climate 
ripens the winter varieties so early in the autumn as to impair their keeping- 
qualities. The leading early sorts are Yellow Transparent, Red Astraclian, 
Cooper Market, Oldenburg, Duchess of, followed by Gravenstein, Ramsdell 
Sweet, Keswick, Sops of Wine. Maiden Blush, Summer Queen, Lowell, Ben 
Davis and Winesap. Early Harvest and Red June, once very popular here 
are no longer planted. The latter is too small, and the former too easily 
bruised and does not carry well. 
Cultivation— ‘Cow peas are sown in peach orchards in the summer of the 
non-bearing years and plowed under for fertilizer, to be followed by rye in 
the fall, which is turned under the next summer when fully headed out. 
Apple orchards are frequently seeded to clover which after a term of years, 
is plow-ed under for fertilizer. The general practice is to plant hoed crops, 
such as Irish and sweet potatoes in the young orchards for the first three or 
four years and then give the land entirely to the tree. 
Commercial fertilizers are used to a large extent both on garden crops and 
orchards with gratifying results. Stable manure is also used where obtainable. 
Large quantities of apples are evaporated each year, there being numerous 
stock companies operating plants that buy thousands of bushels as they are 
taken from the trees. The farmers by the aid of their own force dry the 
refuse or second quality, and ship the sound fruit. Quantities of peaches, 
pears and black raspberries are treated in the same way. Of varieties of 
apples for this purpose the Ben Davis is most used, as its white flesh is 
transferred into a salable article Avith less fuel than most any other. 
Of insect enemies curculio and codiin moth are the most troublesome and 
cause a greater loss than all others combined. Of diseases the blackberry 
rust is causing great losses to planters of that fruit. 
No irrigation of consequence has been attempted. It is feared that the 
present low price of fruit will not justify a sufficient outlay to make it pro- 
fitable. 
