Peach

a small fruit tree closely related to the plum, cherry, apricot, and almond. The different kinds of peaches, including nectarines, are, it is thought, descendants of the same stock, native to China, but coming to us by way of Persia and Europe. There are nearly 300 varieties. They are arranged in five groups of which the Peen-to or flat peach, the pointed or honey peach, the Cabler, the Elberta, and the Crawford are the types. Another division is that into clingstone and freestone peaches, referring to the ease or otherwise with which the pulp is separated from the stone. Nectarines are an inferior sort of peach.

The chief peach-producing regions of America are the Atlantic coast from Connecticut to the Chesapeake Bay, extending inland possibly a hundred miles; the foothill districts of Georgia and Alabama; an area extending from southern Illinois across Missouri into Kansas; a region extending from Ontario westward to Lake Michigan; eastern Texas; western Colorado; and the greater part of California. Too far north peaches winterkill. Georgia peaches are sent to market in refrigerator cars. Michigan peaches have but a few hours' ride across the lake to Chicago, one of the best markets. Delaware growers are within a few hours of New York and Philadelphia. The irrigated valleys of western Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon are attracting attention as important peach-producing centers.

In cultivation, the peach requires much the same treatment as the plum. Botanically, the seed resembles a plum pit. Seeds may be planted in rows a few inches apart. In midsummer, the young scions are grafted by budding. In the peach orchard they should be planted from twelve to twenty feet apart. Peach trees begin to bear in the third year. A tree in full bearing is expected to produce from one to ten bushels yearly. The life of the peach tree is about twenty-five years, only ten years of which, however, can be counted on as productive. To secure the best results the branches must be pruned to admit sunlight. The fruit should be thinned so as to hang five or six inches apart.

The peach tree is the most delicate of all orchard trees. It grows best in light soil. It is particularly subject to frost. In the North the twigs of the peach are likely to turn yellow. In the South, for some similar unexplained reason, the twigs dwarf and produce thick rosettes of leaves. Twig-blight, leaf-curl, and black-spot are common names given to as many forms of fungi that attack the young twigs. Peach raisers spray with Bordeaux mixture as a preventive.

The peach tree is subject to the attacks of several insects. Among these enemies are the twig-borer, the bark-beetle, bark-lice, the leaf-roller, a peach weevil, and several scale insects. One of the most troublesome enemies is the curculio, the foe, likewise, of the plum. In many instances the only cure for a diseased peach orchard is to cut down the trees, burn them, and start anew.

In spite of many drawbacks, peach raising is a profitable branch of horticulture. During the season Georgia markets 3,000 carloads of basket peaches a day. There are said to be 4,000,000 peach trees in Delaware. Some of the larger Delaware growers market from 100,000 to 200,000 baskets a year. As far back as 1875 the Delaware division of the Pennsylvania Railroad carried 5,443,200 baskets of peaches to market in a single season.