A Fruit Survey oe Mesa County 
37 
bertas. This variety is a freestone, attractive in appearance, a good 
shipper, and splendid for canning, although rather poor in quality. 
Carman ranks second in number of trees, with 3.8% for the 
Valley as a whole. It is a freestone, creamy white, with a delicious 
flavor, flesh sometimes streaked with red near the seed, an excel¬ 
lent peach. 
Only four other varieties, comprising more than 1% each of 
the peaches of the Valley, are grown. These are: Salway, 1 J4% ; 
Crawford, 1.3%; Triumph, 1.1%, and Champion, 1.1%. All other 
varieties combined constitute 7.3%. 
The early peaches are not commercially profitable. They do 
not stand up well under shipment and the market for them is very 
limited. Their use must be confined largely to planting for local 
market. 
Cutturat Methods 
As a general thing, peaches are clean cultivated. Many or¬ 
chards have been thus handled for so long that practically all the 
organic matter is burnt out of the soil. The soil in these cases 
bakes easily and is hard to handle. 
Practically all of the peach orchards in which clover or alfalfa 
was .grown and properly handled appeared to be in much better 
condition than those which had been continually clean cultivated. 
Some growers, of course, use the cover crop as hay, but where this 
is done the trees suffer from the treatment. The cover crop is in¬ 
tended to provide organic matter for the land and reduce evapora¬ 
tion of soil moisture. It is ridiculous to suppose that the cover 
crop can be removed from the land without injury to the trees, for 
the land cannot support two crops successfully where nothing is re¬ 
turned to it. I 
Some of the best peach growers in the Valley practice clean 
cultivation, but supply large amounts of stable manure every year. 
This supplies the organic matter which is so essential for success¬ 
ful fruit growing. The chief drawback in this practice is the scar¬ 
city of manure available. Cover cropping will be best for the 
majority of orchardists. 
Pruning 
The peach is a tree that requires very heavy pruning. Unless 
severely pruned, insufficient new wood is formed to provide for 
the next year’s crop. Whenever neglected, the fruit will be small 
and unprofitable. Good growers always pay close attention to their 
pruning. 
