98 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
JOHN CRAIG. 
The subject of.this sketch, well known as the horti¬ 
culturist of the Central Experimental Earm, at Ottawa, 
Ont., is one of the foremost horticulturists of the 
country. He belongs to that class of young men who 
have risen rapidly to prominent positions by reason of 
close application to study and practice in a chosen 
profession. Mr. Craig is a native of the Province of 
Quebec. He was born at Lakefield, Argenteuil county, 
in 1864. His parents had charge of the experimental 
farm belonging to the 
late Charles Gibb, at 
Abbotsford, and John 
Craig was private sec¬ 
retary and assistant to 
Mr. Gibb. He gradu¬ 
ated from the high 
school in Montreal and 
the Iowa Agricultural 
College, in the class of 
1887. He was thus 
under the instruction of 
Professor J. L. Budd, 
who visited Russia with 
Mr. Gibb, to gather 
hardy fruits for test¬ 
ing in North America. 
During his college work 
Mr. Craig employed 
his summer and winter 
vacation time in prac¬ 
tical nursery and green¬ 
house work and his 
last year, as Professor 
Budd’s assistant, in 
hybridizing, propagat¬ 
ing and testing varie¬ 
ties. 
Upon the organiza¬ 
tion of the Iowa ex- 
])eriment station, Mr. 
Craig was made assis¬ 
tant director and was 
given special charge of 
of the Department of Horticulture, He was sent on a 
botanical expedition, pursuing his research in Dakota, 
Montana, Washington, Oregon, Utah and Colorado. 
In January, 1890, he was appointed horticulturist of 
the Central Experimental Farm for the Dominion of 
Canada. 
Mr. Craig is a member of the principal horticultural 
and pomological societies of the United States and 
Canada, of the American Forestry Association, and 
of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. 
DELAWARE PEACH ORCHARDS. 
E. N. Vallandigham, writing from Seaford, Del., 
says: “When the Delaware peach, just now about 
making its appearance in many cities, towns and 
villages, once fairly takes possession of the markets, all 
other fruits—domestic and foreign—acknowledge its 
supremacy, and fruit is always cheap in what is called 
down here ‘ a good peach year.’ This little town, on the 
river Nanticoke and the Delaware railroad, is as nearly 
as may be the center of the world’s chief peach grow¬ 
ing region. When one 
speaks of the Dela¬ 
ware peach, one means, 
of course, the peach 
that grows on the Dela¬ 
ware peninsula, which 
includes the state of 
Delaware and the east¬ 
ern shores of Maryland 
and Virginia. 
“The peach region 
is mainly confined to 
those counties of Dela¬ 
ware and Maryland ly¬ 
ing directly between 
Delaware and Chesa¬ 
peake bays ; specific¬ 
ally, Kent and Sussex 
counties in Delaware, 
and Kent, Queen Anne’s 
Caroline, Talbot, and 
Dorchester on the 
eastern shore of Mary¬ 
land. Peaches grow, 
however, in every 
county of the penin¬ 
sula, though the great 
bulk of so-called Dela¬ 
ware peaches comes 
from the group of coun¬ 
ties first named. Sea- 
ford may be esteemed 
the peach center, 
though Melford and 
Bridgeville, both in Delaware, also contend for that 
honor. Ten years ago the peach center was some miles 
farther north, and it has traveled southward and a little 
westward fully sixty miles in the past thirty years. 
Peaches grow in constantly increasing quantities at 
many other points in the United States—north, south 
and west. Earlier peaches are grown in Georgia, bigger 
peaches in California and, perhaps, later peaches in 
Connecticut, New York and the lake states of the West, 
but no other similar area in the United States or in the 
world grows so many peaches and, on the average, 
JOHN CRAIG. 
