H.o 
Vol. LXXVIII. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co., 
333 W. 30th St., New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK. SEPTEMBER 20. 1919. 
i 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, June 20. 1879. at the Post , T . 
Office at New York, N. Y.. under the Act of March 3, 1879. -NO. 400— 
The Scientific Search for a Jersey Peach 
They Have It, a Successor of Crawford 
M ANY middle-aged men who read this will re¬ 
member when New Jersey represented the 
very high spot in peach growing. Whenever the sea¬ 
son came and the best fruit was desired, people 
called for “Jersey" peaches. That was before the 
average consumer knew that they raised peaches in 
peach seemed to lose its grip on the market. Other 
sections poured in their fruit and without just know¬ 
ing how it happened the name of the good old .State 
was no longer considered a “peach” in the market. 
What happened? The most potent cause for this 
change was the failure of the Crawford peach to 
Klberta and Belle of Georgia that put Georgia into 
the peach game. At any rate there came a time 
when Crawford seemed to grow weary in well-doing. 
Prosperity sometimes takes the tuck out of a man 
and he quits—taking a great business down witli 
him. Something of the sort happened to the Craw- 
Registered Jersey Cow on the Farm of a Nebraska Reader. Fig. 428 
Georgia. Delaware or Connecticut. The word "Jer¬ 
sey" was justly associated with high-class peaches 
as it has been unjustly associated with tierce mos¬ 
quitoes! And New Jersey peach growers kept up 
the State’s reputation by producing the tinest fruit 
of its season that reached the markets. No one can 
ever compute the wealth which this old-time reputa¬ 
tion for producing tine peaches brought to New 
Jersey. The word "Jersey" was as good as a patent 
or trademark. 
But somehow us the years went on the “Jersey” 
take its old-time interest in life—if we may put it 
that way. 
The Crawford peach at its best was a wonder- 
just exactly suited to the peach-growing sections of 
New Jersey. It was at home in that climate: the 
people knew just how to grow it. and at its best it 
came on the market a ball of soft, melting gold, 
blushing with pride at its excellence. It was the 
Crawford peach that put New Jersey on the map 
and secured a trademark in the word "Jersey.” It 
might be said in much the same way that it was 
ford peach. It played out and lost much of its vigor, 
and with its energy went much of the value of the 
word "Jersey’; as a peach State. The soil and 
climate and the growers are still on deck, producing 
line peaches; but the laziness or sickness of the 
Crawford peach has taken much of the imagination 
out of the market. When that goes there is loss, 
because most consumers eat with the mind as well 
as with the mouth. So other sections have come in 
as peach producers, and New Jersey has lost her 
place high up on the list. 
