292 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
In some strains the flesh is streaked with red. In one variety 
this is almost a solid red. 
This strain succeeds well up into the central states. The 
main point is that it requires a good deal of summer heat to 
mature the fruit. Among the cultivated varieties belonging 
to the group are Cobbler, Columbia, Lulu, Onderdonk, and 
Texas. 
Race 4, North China. This group of peaches has been 
very completely written up by G. Harold Powell in Bulletin 
Crimson Clover as a Cover Crop 
54 of the Delaware Experiment Station. The characteris¬ 
tics of the group are briefly as follows: vigorous, round to 
broad heads, hardy, prolific, leaves large, flat, deep green, 
flowers large, fruit large, variable in color, flesh fine grained, 
juicy, either cling or free. The principal drawback is the 
susceptibility to rot of many of the varieties. This group 
originated in orchards around Shanghai, China, and has been 
known as the North China or Chinese Cling group. To say 
that Elberta belongs to this group will immediately bring it 
to the mind of all peach growers. The strain was brought 
into this country by Charles Downing about 1850. It now 
furnishes the major portion of the commercial varieties of 
peaches. Carman and Thurber are members of the group. 
Race 5, Persian. This represents the oldest and earliest 
cultivated, at least from the commercial standpoint, of all 
the peaches we grow. The tree is a medium size. The fol¬ 
iage is nearly always crimped or crinkled, takes on a purplish 
tinge in the autumn. The fruit is highly colored, and of the 
highest quality. The buds are easily moved by warm 
weather, and therefore subject to frost injury. It has been 
the victim of yellows and rosette in the great peach districts 
of the Northeast. To this group belong Alexander, the 
Crawfords, Mountain Rose, Old Mixon, Garfield, St. John, 
and many other well known varieties. 
COMMERCIAL ASPECTS OF PEACH ORCHARDING 
Time was when the privilege of growing peaches was ac¬ 
corded to only a few favored localities. Hardly any fruit 
in the whole range of orchard species has been more widely 
colonized in the past twenty-five years than the peach. Time 
was when Delaware and New Jersey were supposed to be al¬ 
most the only places we should attempt peach culture in the 
eastern United States. These states performed an exceed¬ 
ingly valuable office as a publicity bureau for the whole 
northeastern country when they were in their heyday as 
peach-producing regions. But since that day peach culture 
has spread east, west, north, and south, and particularly 
southward. From 1890 to 1900 only three states in the 
Union showed a decrease in peach planting. These were 
New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. In 1890 these three 
states had twenty-eight per cent of all the peach trees in the 
United States. In 1900 they had only nine per cent. This 
means that planting decreased in these states, but it also 
means that planting increased largely in other states. 
The Gulf states from Alabama to the western boundary of 
Texas have developed great peach orchards. Success has 
not been uniform and continuous any more than it was not 
uniform and continuous in the upper peninsula region in 
early days. But this is not remarkable, when we consider 
the character of the fruit we are dealing with. 
ORCHARD MANAGEMENT 
The necessity for good air drainage is probably empha¬ 
sized with more force in the case of the peach than any other 
fruit. Lack of air drainage invites late and early frosts. 
Pockets where the cold air has a tendency to settle present 
these unfavorable conditions.- Curious enough, although 
this is a distinctly warm-blooded fruit, the majority of peach 
growers vote in favor of a northern exposure. In New Eng¬ 
land and New York, locations adjacent to bodies of water 
are most favorable. Probably the safest peach region in 
the whole country is that lying along the south shore of Lake 
Ontario. In our personal recollection, fewer failures have 
occurred in this region than any other region of similar size 
in the United States. We refer to failures due to climatic 
vagaries. It is well known that interior regions are notably 
more frosty than coast climates. 
Mammoth Clover as a Cover Crop 
PEACH SOIL 
Good peaches‘are grown on soils grading from drifting 
sand to stiff, sandy loam, and even on clay loam, if well 
drained. The important influences of the soil bear partic¬ 
ularly upon the ripening of the wood. The soil which will 
tend to ripen wood thoroughly in the autumn is by all odds 
the most desirable. Probably the ideal peach soil is a grav¬ 
elly or light, sandy soil with porous subsoil, warm and well 
drained. 
