PEACH-GROWING IN NEW YORK
The history of the peach, whether narrative or natural, shows that this
fruit succeeds commercially only in restricted areas under special soil
and climatic conditions. In the United States, as we have seen, the
peach-industry has sprung up in a dozen or more distinct geographical
regions, three of which are in New York. In discussing peach-growing in
New York we must, first, determine the boundaries of its peach-regions;
second, show the relative importance of the peach-industry in each;
and, third, note the determinants that make favored parts of the State
peach-regions.
The three main peach-areas in New York are the Hudson River Valley,
the shore of Lake Ontario and the lands surrounding the Finger Lakes.
The relative importance of these areas is shown by the number of trees
in the regions. More than half of the peach-trees in New York are
along the south shore of Lake Ontario, the total number in bearing
for the region in 1909 being 1,271,514. The two counties of the State
leading in number of trees are in this belt, Niagara with 591,350
and Monroe with 339,375, while of the other three in the belt there
are 166,584 in Wayne, 157,934 in Orleans and 16,271 in Oswego. The
Hudson River Valley district is second in importance, with a total of
679,662 trees, of which Ulster County, ranking third in the State, has
313,971, and Orange, with fourth rank, has 212,879, while Dutchess has
63,741, Columbia 51,818, Rockland 21,081 and Westchester 16,172. The
Finger Lakes region, with a much smaller area of suitable land, has
but 322,179 trees, of which Seneca County has 81,440, Ontario 56,495,
Schuyler 51,993, Yates 48,350, Tompkins 34,090 and Livingston, a little
to the west of this region proper, 19,251.
Long Island, once the seat of a considerable peach-industry, now has
but 34,348 trees, 30,333 in Suffolk County and 4,015 in Nassau. There
is a large area on the shore of Lake Erie suitable for peaches but land
here is mainly planted with grapes; yet Chautauqua County has 32,377
and Erie 10,987 trees. Beside these main and subsidiary peach-regions
there are many localities in which peaches are grown for local markets
or home use. Peach statistics for the State emphasize strikingly the
fact that the peach is a specialist's crop and that it can be grown
only in special environments. Thus, compare the figures given for
peach-growing counties with these: In two counties in New York there
is not a peach-tree; in six counties there are less than twenty-five
trees each; in twenty-two counties there are fewer than five hundred
trees or less than five acres in any one; of the sixty-one counties
in the State, only twenty-four average more than one hundred acres
planted to peaches and but six have more than a thousand acres. There
are still, however, acres beyond calculation, fecund for peaches, many
lying fallow, upon which peaches can be grown when the markets warrant.
The acreage for the State and its peach-regions may be determined,
approximately, by dividing the number of trees by 100. In 1909 there
were 2,457,187 bearing trees and 2,216,907 trees not of bearing age,
a total of 4,674,094 trees covering 46,740 acres in the State. At
this writing, 1916, the acreage is larger. In 1909, along the Ontario
Shore there were 12,715 acres planted to bearing peaches; in the
Hudson Valley, 6,796; about the Finger Lakes, 3,221; on Long Island,
343; on the shores of Lake Erie, 433. These figures for districts
cover bearing trees only, but holding the proportion the same for the
districts as for the State, the total acreage for each district should
be doubled for 1909 and, we are sure, much more than doubled for 1916.
The statement that the number of bearing trees has doubled in the past
five years is supported by figures furnished me by F. S. Welsh,[254]
Agriculturist of the New York Central Railroad Company. The New York
Central handles at least 95 per centum of the peaches grown in New
York and shipped to the markets; in 1910 this railroad handled 1,341
carloads of peaches, 4,419 carloads in 1915.
New York ranks third among the states of the Union in the production
of peaches, the value of the crop being but a little less than that
of Georgia though only about half as much as that of California. The
number of bearing trees and the yield in bushels of fruit are given in
the census report of 1910 so that the average production per bearing
tree in the several peach-belts of the country may be computed,
throwing light on the condition of the orchards in the different
regions. California leads with an average production of 37.8 quarts per
tree; New York follows with 22.6 quarts; after which comes Michigan
with 18.5; Pennsylvania, 13.7; New Jersey, 11.6; Ohio, 10.5; Georgia,
7.7; and Delaware, which must have had an off year in 1909, but 5
quarts.
Perhaps it is worth while putting on record an opinion as to the
status of peach-growing in the State at present, 1916. The acreage
is certainly the greatest yet planted in the State--as has been said
nearly or quite double the number of trees bearing in 1909 which
the last census gives as 1,014,110. Certainly, too, orchards were
never as well cared for as now. Yet the percentage of unprofitable
peach-orchards in the State is high--at least fifty per centum--for
which several causes can be named; as, competition and over-production
with consequent low prices, poor distribution, a series of seasons with
much winter-killing, and a succession of cold, wet springs. These are
episodes in the industry hard to overcome. Of the avoidable causes of
the present high percentage of unprofitable orchards perhaps the most
common is the attempt to do too much whereby many eventually come to
bankruptcy. Another reason for the many unprofitable orchards of the
present is that the peach is a favorite fruit for beginners. Profits in
peach-growing are often luring, the peach is an attractive fruit, it
seems easy to grow and the fruit-grower plants, to learn by experience
that peach-growing is not, as so often pictured, a pleasant and
profitable avocation but a most exacting vocation.
Why is the peach so localistic? In particular, what has set the bounds
of the three restricted peach-areas in New York? To some extent, of
course, man-governed agencies have determined where peaches may or may
not be grown in the State. Peaches must move quickly and the carriers
must not dip too deeply in the grower's pockets; therefore markets must
not be too distant and transportation must be cheap and efficient.
Again, peach-growing is a fine art and becomes thus a specialist's
business that must be learned in the peach-orchard; therefore, even if
soil and climate be favorable, the industry lags if it lacks leaders
to teach and to set the pace in orcharding. But, outranking by far
the agencies depending on man, are natural conditions, two of which,
climate and soil, predetermined where peach-industries were to stand in
New York.
CLIMATE
When are plant and climate truly congenial? Perhaps the best test is
the degree to which the plant spontaneously accommodates itself to all
climatic conditions. Thus, the peach is ideally suited to climates
in which it maintains itself without the aid of man. The peach is
perfectly at home, then, in America only where it runs wild,--in parts
of the South. In the North, East and the far West, peaches seldom
grow spontaneously; and the cold of winter, the frosts of spring
and the drouths of summer, in these regions, yearly remind us that
notwithstanding the generations the tree has been grown in America it
is still a stranger in a foreign country--an exotic from warm and
sunlit Mid-Asia. Yet with a little help from man the peach takes kindly
to many climates in which it does not grow spontaneously. Under what
climatic conditions does the peach grow spontaneously? And under what
climatic conditions can the peach be grown with the aid of man as a
commercial success? These questions can be best answered by discussing
the two constituents of climate, temperature and rainfall, in relation
to the peach.
Of the several phases of temperature only extremes in cold are
determinants in peach-growing in New York. The peach stands for all
that is tender and effeminate in a fruit-tree and fares so ill in
winter's cold that the limits of peach-culture are set in all northern
states by the winter climate. The undomesticated peach is at the mercy
of the winter wherever the temperature falls below zero and seldom
grows spontaneously where the mercury drops even to this point. By
selecting hardy varieties and following careful cultural methods,
however, peaches may be grown profitably in climates where it is
occasionally as cold as ten degrees below zero. An isothermal line
passing through points in New York where the thermometer marks -10°
in an occasional winter sets the limits of peach-growing in New York.
The red line in the accompanying map shows the territory in which
peach-growing is reasonably safe in New York while the green line shows
the outside limits of the industry as determined by cold.
Even in the favored peach-regions of New York, winter-injury is a
matter of vital importance to the peach-industry and growers seek means
to avoid or check it. The problem is not an insurmountable one, for
here and there are orchards and varieties which suffer little injury
though possibly adjoining others in which trees or buds are wholly or
partially killed. There must be reasons for the injury in the one and
not in the other. These, the New York Agricultural Experiment Station
made an attempt to discover a few years ago in letters addressed to the
peach-growers of the State.[255] From the information received, and
that gained by observation, we may lay down the following propositions
regarding hardiness of the peach in New York.
First.--The soil has much influence on hardiness. The peach must have
a warm, dry soil to secure the hardiness inherent in the species.
Only in such a soil can trees make a strong, firm, well-matured
growth, which is conducive to hardiness. Bottom-heat seems especially
necessary to secure a growth that will withstand cold and for this
reason gravelly and stony soils, since they hold heat well, make good
peach-lands. So, too, a gravelly subsoil seems to provide the proper
root-environment for the peach-tree and if this be present it matters
little, so far as hardiness is concerned, whether it be overlaid with
sand, gravel, loam, a light clay or combinations of these.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK]
Second.--The amount of moisture in the soil in the winter affects the
hardiness of the peach. Either extreme of moisture, excessive wetness
or excessive dryness, gives favorable conditions for winter-killing. A
wet soil freezes deeply and trees standing in it are sappy throughout
the winter. Cold, alternating with warm weather, or accompanied with
dry winds, causes excessive evaporation from trees and if the soil be
so dry as not to furnish moisture to replace the water evaporated,
winter-injury ensues. When twigs and buds shrivel in winter, whether
from lack of water or lack of maturity, winter-injury almost invariably
follows.
Third.--Fertilizers may have a helpful or a harmful effect as regards
hardiness of tree. When fertilizers cause a heavy, rank, soft growth,
they undoubtedly make the trees more susceptible to winter-injury. On
the other hand, trees suffer as much or more from cold if underfed
than if overfed. Nothing is more certain than that vigorous growth in
early summer can be made of great service in counteracting cold and
that half-starved trees, or those which have been allowed to bear too
heavily, suffer most from freezing.
Fourth.--Cover-crops protect trees from cold. Case after case can be
cited of orchards with cover-crops surviving a cold winter when nearby
orchards without the muffler of vegetation, leaves and snow were
killed. Possibly the cover-crop is the most effective treatment of the
peach-orchard to avoid winter-killing, acting as a cover to protect
the roots from cold, causing the trees to ripen their wood quickly and
thoroughly and assisting in regulating the supply of moisture.
Fifth.--Low-headed trees suffer less in both trunks and branches from
winter-injury than high-headed trees. Buds, however, often survive on
the higher branches and not on the lower ones. The low-headed trees
are less injured probably because the wood loses less moisture by
the evaporation from the effects of winds than do high-headed trees;
because the trunk at least is better protected from the sun and hence
suffers less from sunscald, one of the effects of freezing and thawing;
and because, for some reason or other, low-headed trees seem to be
more vigorous than high-headed trees.
Sixth.--Wind-breaks furnish small protection against cold to either
trees or buds. The value of a wind-break depends largely upon the
topography of the land. A wind-break so planted as wholly to check
currents of air is detrimental so far as cold is concerned; so planted
as to deflect the current of air they may become of value in keeping
off frosts. More often than not, however, they seriously check
atmospheric drainage and the damage by frost is greater.
Seventh.--Young peach-trees suffer more than old trees, probably
because the young trees do not mature their wood as well as the older
ones. There are, however, many exceptions to the statement that young
trees are less hardy to cold than old ones. Old trees are often forced
to produce large quantities of new wood susceptible to winter-killing,
while, on the other hand, the superabundant growth of young trees can
be kept down by orchard-treatment. Old trees possessing low vitality
are less hardy than vigorous, young trees. Thus, trees suffering from
the ravages of borers, leaf-curl or other fungus troubles suffer most
from cold. While young trees are more susceptible to freezing than
old ones, yet they are much more likely to recover, if recovery be
possible, and their return to a normal condition is more rapid.
Eighth.--What degree of cold will kill peach-trees? Twenty degrees
below zero under the best of conditions kills the peach. Depending upon
the condition in which the trees begin the winter, however, the trees
may be killed by any temperature between zero and -20°. The following
are the conditions unfavorable to withstanding cold, in about the order
of importance: Immaturity of wood; lack of protection of roots by snow
or cover-crop; poor drainage; overbearing in the preceding year; lack
of vitality from ravages of insects, or fungi or from infertility of
soil; susceptibility of variety to cold.
Ninth.--What degree of cold will kill peach-buds? Much depends upon
the condition of the buds. Fifteen degrees below zero seems to be the
limit that peach-buds can stand even when all conditions are favorable.
The chief factors influencing tenderness of buds are maturity of buds,
variety, and the time at which buds finish their resting period.
Tenth.--Small-growing varieties with compact heads are hardier than the
free-growing sorts with large heads. The following varieties are named
as compact in growth and hence hardier than the average: Chili, Crosby,
Gold Drop, Barnard, Kalamazoo, Triumph, Wager and Fitzgerald.
Eleventh.--In New York the varieties Crosby, Chili, Stevens, Gold Drop
and Elberta are named as most hardy in wood. As most tender in wood
Early Crawford, Late Crawford, Chairs, St. John and Niagara are named.
Crosby, Chili, Triumph, Gold Drop, Stevens and Kalamazoo are most hardy
in bud. Early Crawford, Late Crawford, Chairs, Reeves and Elberta are
most tender in bud.
The average date at which the last killing frost occurs in the spring
also determines the limit in latitude or altitude at which the peach
can be grown. Even in the favored peach-regions of New York, records
bring out the fact that killing frosts must be expected occasionally to
destroy the peach-crop and there are few years indeed in which frost
does not take heavy toll in the State as a whole. In the twenty-five
year period beginning with 1881 and ending with 1905, the peach-crop
was destroyed or seriously injured over a large part of New York in
thirteen seasons.[256] Little or nothing is done in New York to protect
the peach from frosts. Truth is, not much can be done. Whitewashing
trees delays blooming time and in some seasons might prevent injury
from late frosts but it is too uncertain and too costly to be worth
putting in practice. Wind-breaks as often favor the frost as the tree.
Smudging is too expensive for the extensive system of peach-orcharding
practiced in the East. Failure due to frost may be expected, then, when
the commonly recognized precautions in selecting frost-proof sites are
not recognized.
The limits of peach-culture in New York are also determined by early
fall frosts and by the length of the growing season, though both are
less important than the winter-climate and late frosts in the spring.
The peach-grower must be able to synchronize three of these phases of
climate, spring frosts, fall frosts and length of summer season, with
the blooming and ripening of peaches,--to do which he must have weather
data and the dates of blooming and ripening of varieties of peaches.
The necessary data as to the average dates of spring and fall frosts
and the length of the growing season can be obtained from the nearest
local weather bureau and in the accompanying table the blooming and
ripening seasons of 181 varieties of peaches grown at the New York
Agricultural Experiment Station are given for the years 1910 to 1914.
Blooming and ripening dates vary in the several peach-regions in the
State so that to make use of the data from this Station consideration
must be given to the latitude, altitude and local environment of the
peach-orchard.
The latitude of the Smith Astronomical Observatory, a quarter of a
mile from the Station orchards, is 42° 52' 46.2"; the altitude of the
orchards is from five hundred to five hundred and twenty-five feet
above the sea level. The soil is a loamy but rather cold clay; the
orchards lie about a mile west of Seneca Lake, a body of water forty
miles in length and from one to three and one-half miles in width and
more than six hundred feet deep. The lake has frozen over but a few
times since the region was settled, over a hundred years ago, and has a
very beneficial influence on the adjacent country in lessening the cold
of winter and the heat of summer and in preventing early blooming.
The blooming period is that of full bloom. The data were taken from
trees grown under normal conditions as to pruning, distance apart, and
as to all other factors which might influence the blooming period.
There is a variation of several days between the time of full bloom of
the different varieties of peaches. These differences can be utilized
in selecting sorts to avoid injury from frost.
BLOOMING PERIODS AND SEASON OF RIPENING OF PEACH-VARIETIES
=========================================================================
| Blooming period | Season of ripening
|----------------------------+----------------------------
|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very
|early| |season| |late|early| |season| |late
---------------+-----+-----+------+----+----+-----+-----+------+----+----
Abundance | | * | | | | | | * | |
Admiral Dewey | | | * | | | | * | | |
Ailsworth | | | * | | | | | | * |
Albright Cling | | | * | | | | | * | |
Alexander | | * | | | | * | | | |
Alton | | * | | | | | | * | |
Amelia | | | * | | | | | * | |
Ameliaberta | | | | * | | | | | * |
Arkansas | | | * | | | | * | | |
Arp | | | * | | | | * | | |
Athens | | | * | | | | | | * |
Augbert | | | * | | | | | | * |
Banner | | | | * | | | | | * |
Barber | | | * | | | | | * | |
Beatrice | | | * | | | | * | | |
Belle | | * | | | | | | * | |
Bequette Free | | | * | | | | | * | |
BLOOMING PERIODS AND SEASON OF RIPENING OF PEACH-VARIETIES--_Continued_
=========================================================================
| Blooming period | Season of ripening
|----------------------------+----------------------------
|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very
|early| |season| |late|early| |season| |late
---------------+-----+-----+------+----+----+-----+-----+------+----+----
Berenice | | | * | | | | | * | |
Bilyeu | | * | | | | | | | | *
Bishop | | | * | | | | | * | |
Blood Cling | | | * | | | | | | | *
Blood Leaf | | | * | | | | | | | *
Bokhara | | | * | | | | | * | |
Bonanza | | | * | | | | | | | *
Brandywine | | | * | | | | | | * |
Bray Rareripe | | | * | | | | | | | *
Brigdon | | | * | | | | | * | |
Briggs | | | * | | | | * | | |
Burke | | | * | | | | | * | |
Butler Late | | | * | | | | | | * |
Buttram | | | * | | | | | | * |
Canada | | | * | | | * | | | |
Capps | | | * | | | | | * | |
Captain Ede | | | | | * | | | * | |
Carman | | | * | | | | * | | |
Champion | | | * | | | | | * | |
Chairs | | | | * | | | | * | |
Chili | | | * | | | | | | * |
Chinese Cling | | | * | | | | | | * |
Chinese Free | | * | | | | | | * | |
Christiana | | | * | | | | | | * |
Clarissa | | | * | | | | | | * |
Clifton Park | | * | | | | | * | | |
Conkling | | | | * | | | | * | |
Connecticut | | | * | | | | | * | |
Connet | | | * | | | | * | | |
Coolidge | | | * | | | | | * | |
Crosby | | | * | | | | | | * |
Crothers | | * | | | | | | | * |
Davidson | | * | | | | | * | | |
Delaware | | | * | | | | | * | |
Denton | | * | | | | | | * | |
Dr. Burton | | | * | | | | | * | |
Dulce | | | | * | | | | | | *
Early Charlotte| | | * | | | | | * | |
Early Crawford | | | * | | | | | * | |
Early Michigan | | * | | | | | | * | |
Early York | | | | | * | | | * | |
Edgemont | | | * | | | | | * | |
Elberta | | | * | | | | | * | |
Emma | | | * | | | | | * | |
Engle | | | * | | | | | * | |
Eureka | | * | | | | | | * | |
Family Favorite| | * | | | | | | * | |
Fitzgerald | | | * | | | | | * | |
Ford Late | | * | | | | | | | * |
BLOOMING PERIODS AND SEASON OF RIPENING OF PEACH-VARIETIES--_Continued_
=========================================================================
| Blooming period | Season of ripening
|----------------------------+----------------------------
|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very
|early| |season| |late|early| |season| |late
---------------+-----+-----+------+----+----+-----+-----+------+----+----
Foster | | | * | | | | | * | |
Fox | | | | * | | | | | * |
Frances | | | * | | | | | | * |
Frederica | | | * | | | | | | * |
Geary | | | * | | | | | | | *
General Lee | | | * | | | | | * | |
George IV | | | * | | | | | * | |
Gold Drop | | * | | | | | | | * |
Gold Dust | | | * | | | | | | * |
Gold Mine | | | * | | | | | | * |
Gordon | | | | * | | | | | | *
Governor Garland | | * | | | | | * | |
Governor Hogg | | | * | | | | * | | |
Greensboro | | * | | | | | * | | |
Guinn | | | * | | | | | * | |
Hale Early | | | * | | | | * | | |
Heath Cling | | | * | | | | | | | *
Heath Free | | | * | | | | | | * |
Hiley | | | * | | | | | * | |
Honest John | | | * | | | | | * | |
Horton River | | * | | | | | | * | |
Hynds Yellow | | | * | | | | | * | |
Hynes | | | * | | | | * | | |
Illinois | | | * | | | | | * | |
Ingold | | | | * | | | | * | |
Iron Mountain | | | | * | | | | | | *
Jackson | | | | * | | | | * | |
Jennie Worthen | | | * | | | | | * | |
Jennings | | | * | | | | | * | |
Kalamazoo | | | * | | | | | | * |
Klondike | | | * | | | | | | * |
Lamont | | | * | | | | | | * |
Large York | | | * | | | | | * | |
Late Crawford | | | * | | | | | | * |
Late Elberta | | | * | | | | | * | |
Late Rareripe | | | * | | | | | | * |
Levy | | | * | | | | | | | *
Lodge | | * | | | | | | * | |
Lola | | * | | | | | | * | |
Lord Palmerston| | * | | | | | | | * |
Lorentz | | | * | | | | | | | *
McCollister | | | * | | | | | * | |
McKay Late | | | * | | | | | | | *
Mamie Ross | | * | | | | | | * | |
Markham | | | * | | | | | * | |
Mathews | | | * | | | | | | * |
May Lee | | | * | | | | * | | |
Maule Early | | | * | | | | * | | |
Millhiser | | | * | | | | | | | *
BLOOMING PERIODS AND SEASON OF RIPENING OF PEACH-VARIETIES--_Continued_
===============================================================================
| Blooming period | Season of ripening
|----------------------------+----------------------------
|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very
|early| |season| |late|early| |season| |late
---------------------+-----+-----+------+----+----+-----+-----+------+----+----
Miner Wonder | | | * | | | | | | * |
Moore Favorite | | | | * | | | | | * |
Morris White | | | * | | | | | | * |
Mountain Rose | | | * | | | | | * | |
Munson Free | | | * | | | | | | * |
Niagara | | | * | | | | | * | |
Northboro | | * | | | | | | * | |
Oldmixon Cling | | | * | | | | | | * |
Oldmixon Free | | | * | | | | | | * |
Opulent | | | * | | | | | * | |
Oriole | | | * | | | | | | * |
Orleans | | | | * | | | | * | |
Parson Early | | | * | | | | | * | |
Pearce Yellow | | | * | | | | | * | |
Pearson | * | | | | | | | * | |
Perfection | | | * | | | | | | * |
Philip Horton | | | | | * | | | | | *
Picquet | | | * | | | | | | | *
Potter | | | | * | | | | * | |
Prolific | | * | | | | | | * | |
Ray | | | * | | | | | * | |
Red Bird | | | * | | | | * | | |
Red Bird Cling | | | * | | | | * | | |
Red Cheek Melocoton | | | * | | | | | * | |
Reeves | | | | * | | | | * | |
Rivers | | * | | | | | * | | |
Rudings Late | | | * | | | | | * | |
Russell | | * | | | | | | * | |
St. John | | | * | | | | * | | |
Salwey | | | * | | | | | | | *
Schumaker | | * | | | | * | | | |
Shipley Late | | | * | | | | | | * |
Simmons | | | | | * | | | | | *
Slappey | | | | | * | | | | * |
Smock | | | * | | | | | | | *
Sneed | | | * | | | * | | | |
Steadly | | | | * | | | | | | *
Strout | | * | | | | * | | | |
Stump | | | * | | | | | | * |
Summer Snow | | | * | | | | | | * |
Surpasse | | | * | | | | | * | |
Surprise | | | * | | | | | * | |
Susquehanna | | | * | | | | | * | |
Switzerland | | | * | | | | | | * |
Thurber | | | * | | | | | * | |
Tiebout | | | * | | | | | | * |
Tillotson | | | | * | | | | * | |
Triumph | | * | | | | | * | | |
Troth | | * | | | | | | * | |
BLOOMING PERIODS AND SEASON OF RIPENING OF PEACH-VARIETIES--_Continued_
=========================================================================
| Blooming period | Season of ripening
|----------------------------+----------------------------
|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very|Very |Early| Mid- |Late|Very
|early| |season| |late|early| |season| |late
---------------+-----+-----+------+----+----+-----+-----+------+----+----
Victor | | * | | | | * | | | |
Waddell | | | * | | | | | * | |
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Willett | | | * | | | | | | * |
Williams | | | * | | | | | | | *
Wonderful | | | | * | | | | | | *
Worlds Fair | | | | * | | * | | | |
Worrell | | | | * | | | | | * |
Yellow Rareripe| | | * | | | | | * | |
Yellow Swan | | | | * | | | * | | |
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The peach seldom suffers from hot weather in New York. The fruit is
sometimes injured in the full blaze of the sun but the foliage usually
furnishes ample protection against such injury. On the other hand, for
a finely finished product the peach must have an unclouded sun and
ample air, these conditions giving high color and full flavor.
The peach requires less moisture than most other fruits--its original
home was on the desert's edge in Asia. In New York the rainfall is
usually quite sufficient in all peach-regions for this crop, the
exception being, possibly, in the southern part of the Central Lakes
region, where, in the lands adapted to the peach, the soil is often
thin and drought, season after season, lays heavily on the land. The
peach in New York more often suffers from too much rain than too
little. Cold, wet weather in blooming time is the fruit-grower's vernal
bane in this State and rain not infrequently prevents a set of peaches
even in localities where the spring rainfall is light. Monthly and
seasonal "means" of precipitation, especially of the month of May,
are of considerable importance in determining the desirability of a
locality for peaches.
There are several other phases of climate usually of but local
application which sometimes become of vital importance to the
peach-grower and must receive attention in selecting an orchard-site.
The direction, force and frequency of prevailing winds during the
blooming and ripening periods; the liability to hail storms; the amount
of cloudiness in the summer months; the nature and degree of seasonal
variations; the degree of humidity of the atmosphere as related to
fungus diseases, especially the dreaded brown-rot; and the frequency of
drouths are all problems to be solved before planting the peach.
SOILS FOR PEACHES
After climate, soil has been the next most potent natural influence
in determining the location of the peach-regions of the State and of
individual orchards in the several regions. The peach, of all fruits,
is most particular as to soils; though, and this seems not generally
understood, the physical condition of the land is quite as important as
the kind of soil. That is, the peach grows well on a rather wide range
of soils if the land be well drained, well aerated and if it hold heat.
All subsequent treatment fails, whatever the soil, if the root-run be
impeded by water or lack of air and if there be not the stimulus of
considerable bottom-heat. These physical conditions modify greatly what
is to be said in the next paragraph in regard to the kind of soil.
In New York the peach thrives best on a light, free-working sandy or
gravelly loam but there are many good peach-orchards in gravelly and
stony clays--gravel and stone furnishing drainage and aeration and
holding heat. Perhaps, in this State, the light types of soil are too
often chosen on the theory that the peach will grow on any light, sandy
soil. Not so, for the peach will not grow on wind-blown, water-washed
sands; on sand banks, in sand pits, on quicksands, on old sandbars or
on pure quartz sands, though it is to be found planted on all of these.
Nor will the peach flourish on sandy soils at all unless there be a
fair admixture of clay and decomposed vegetable matter and the whole
underlain at a depth of not more than three or four feet with a clay
subsoil or stone which must have natural drainage. The clay subsoil
must not come nearer to the surface than ten or twelve inches while bed
rock ought not, at the very least, be nearer than twenty inches. So
qualified, sandy soils are ideal soils for peaches in New York. Some
of the best peach-lands in the State are exceedingly stony, the stones
being no detriment except in making the land difficult to till.
The peach is conspicuous among fruits for its ability to nourish itself
where the food supply is meagre--indeed it is the richest resource of
fruit-growers on soils deficient in the most important elements of
plant-food. This does not mean that peach-soils are cheap soils. Few
other crops thrive on peach-soils, which make them of little value
except for this fruit, but good peach-soils are so scarce that once
their adaptabilities are discovered they are seldom cheap. Peach-soils,
as a rule, are but moderately fertile. When too fertile, especially
when rich in nitrogen, the foliage is dense, the wood-growth is great,
the season's wood does not mature, the set of fruit is small, and the
peaches lack size, color and flavor. But if not rich, never poor. On
a good peach-soil the trees should make a relatively small, compact
growth of firm wood which each season ripens thoroughly; and, barring
accidents, they should be annually fruitful of large, highly-colored,
well-flavored, properly-shaped peaches covered with sparse and short
pubescence. The fertilization of peach-soils is to be considered in a
separate topic.
We have been generalizing as to the adaptabilities of peaches to soils.
Peach-growing, through keen competition and the great pleasure that a
finely finished product gives the grower, has become a fine art. Now,
in the refinement of the industry, generalizations as to peach-soils
are not sufficient. Growers must find out what particular varieties
grow best in their particular soil. To be sure, there are cosmopolitan
varieties, Elberta for example, which thrive in a diversity of soils,
but, for most part, each distinct variety or type of varieties has
special soil preferences the discovery of which has often made a
man a successful peach-grower. The peculiarities which adapt a soil
to a variety are not analyzable but appear to peach-growers through
intuition or experiment.
Some fruits are made to grow in uncongenial soils by working them
on stocks adapted to the soil. Thus, the peach may be worked on
plum-stocks for heavy, clay soils. Little, however, has been done in
forcing the peach to adapt itself to a soil by consorting varieties and
stocks. There is no doubt, however, but that much may be done when the
adaptabilities of cions to stocks and stocks to soil are better known.
LOCATIONS AND SITES FOR PEACH-ORCHARDS
That peach-growing is not capable of equal development in all of
the agricultural regions of the country and State appears in page
after page of the history of this fruit. Climate and soil, as
we have tried to show, are the great determinants of the large
geographical peach-areas but beside these there are several other
factors influencing the formation of peach-growing communities; as,
transportation facilities, markets, labor, ability to make and dispose
of by-products, selling organizations, local climate and so on. The
economic factors just mentioned, as they apply to the establishment
of peach-belts, have received sufficient notice in the history of
the peach-industry in the United States, but these, together with
several natural factors, need a few words in their local application
to individual plantations under the head of locations and sites for
peach-orchards--the location having to do with the general surroundings
and the site with the particular piece of land to be planted.
The dominant considerations in placing commercial peach-orchards in
the peach-zones in New York seem now to be economic ones. Natural
conditions are so favorable in any of the recognized peach-districts
of the State and obstacles so easily overcome by those who possess
common knowledge of peach-growing, that a crop comes almost as a gift
from nature. Natural advantages are more common than man-made ones;
so that suitable locations are mostly to be sought for in the centers
of peach-growing near a shipping point where the haul is short, the
freight service prompt, regular, efficient, with low freight rates and
refrigerator service, where labor is abundant, and, lastly and very
important, where the markets are so placed that they are not controlled
by growers in regions more advantageously situated.
Advantages offered by local markets now determine the placing of a good
many peach-orchards in New York. A location where there is a good local
market and at the same time ample facilities for shipping to distant
markets is ideal, for it enables the grower to dispose of over-ripe and
second-rate peaches that otherwise go to the dump. The local consumer,
however, usually suffers. Prosperous towns and cities have added much
to the prosperity of nearby peach-districts in this State but generally
these local markets have not received the attention from growers they
deserve. The product sent to the local markets is usually much poorer
than that shipped to a distance. On the other hand, growers maintain
that customers in towns in the peach-belts will not pay for good fruit.
Nowhere are the favorable influences of water more admirably
illustrated than in the peach-orchards of New York, all of the
peach-districts being bounded on one or more sides by bodies of water.
The great majority of the orchards are planted on the shores of one of
the two Great Lakes, slope toward one of the several Finger Lakes, or
are near flowing water in the Hudson. The equalizing effects of bodies
of water on temperature--warmer winters and cooler summers--and the
effects of the air-currents from bodies of water are so well known
that comment is not necessary. It is worth while noting, however, the
distance to which the benign influences of water are felt in the New
York peach-districts. In the Hudson Valley the peach can be grown only
a-mile or two from the river with safety from frosts and freezes. With
few exceptions, the peach-orchards about the Central Lakes overlook the
water. On the Great Lakes peach-plantations are found from one to six
or eight miles from the water, depending upon the height of the land,
and the amount and direction of the slope.
Usually the peach-plantations are some distance above the lakes or
river, generally from one hundred to three hundred feet. When the
altitude is much higher, immunity from frost and winter freezes ceases,
probably because the atmosphere is rarer and no doubt drier so that
heat radiates from the land rapidly inducing frostiness rather than
frostlessness. As the height increases, too, the sweep of the wind
increases. But still, one is often surprised to find vigorous orchards
perched high above the water, the sport of every wind, so that altitude
in peach-growing must be determined by experiment.
The site, as we choose to consider it, is the situation with
especial regard to the particular plot of ground set aside for the
peach-orchard--altitude, soil, slope, exposure, local climate and all
of the natural factors which favor peach-growing. All these have been
touched upon in their relation to peach-districts and locations within
the districts but we need to particularize a little more closely to
show how some of these factors affect individual orchards.
The best peach-orchards in New York are invariably higher than the
surrounding country, such orchards having the two great advantages of
soil-drainage and atmospheric drainage. Rolling land seems not to be at
all essential, for many splendid plantations are on flat lands which,
however, in all cases have an elevation on one or more boundaries
above the surrounding country. The more pronounced the elevation,
within limits, the better, though sharp declines of a few feet, ten
or fifteen, serve for small orchards as do gentle slopes of slightly
higher elevation. Ideal spots where the peach never fails are found in
bits of tillable land, usually too small for large commercial ventures,
in the rough and steep gulches running down from the highlands to the
lakes, occasionally on the Ontario and Erie shores, but more often
in the more broken country about the Finger Lakes. In such cases the
rigors of seasons are seldom felt. We do not recall seeing a single
successful peach-orchard in the State shut in on all sides by higher
land--frosts and freezes would soon play havoc in such a situation.
The exposure of a peach-plantation is, without doubt, a matter of some
importance in choosing a site but the value of particular exposures to
avoid frosts and secure early, late, or highly colored fruits has been
greatly over-emphasized by horticultural writers if New York orchards
be taken as criteria. The theory is most plausible. It runs, in brief:
Northward slopes are best for peaches in frosty regions since on such
slopes plants remain dormant longest thereby often escaping spring
frosts. Southward slopes should be selected for early varieties, the
sun and warmth of such an exposure supposedly hastening the ripening
time. Now the facts are, as we observe them, the peach blossoms with
the first burst of spring warmth whether the slope face north or south;
and whether north or south makes little difference in ripening because
the intense heat of our New York summers submerges slight differences
appearing early in the season because of exposure. About all that shows
in the matter of exposure for peach-orchards, in this State is that the
best slopes are toward the water to secure the effects that dictate the
location of orchards near water.
One comes across many peach-orchards in New York in the shelter of
high hills or heavy forests for which the trees usually show gratitude
in vigor and fruitfulness, provided hill or wood does not shade the
orchard too much. Hills and woods provide desirable shelter only when
so situated as to protect against winter winds and summer storms. A
most remarkable example of winter protection by a forest was to be
seen a few years ago on the somewhat noted fruit-farm of Mr. Grant
Hitchings near South Onondaga where peaches are at the limit as regards
temperature. Here was a peach-orchard half of which was terribly
injured by winter-killing and the other half, protected by a forest a
quarter-mile away, was wholly unhurt. Yet windbreaks have seldom proved
satisfactory, usually developing as many or more disadvantages than
advantages.
STOCKS AND THE PROPAGATION OF PEACHES
The peach-tree, in common with all other fruit-trees, is a consort of
two individuals--a named variety budded on an unnamed seedling. So
far, the industry has been carried on with little or no regard to the
effects the seedling may have on the variety to which it is budded,
yet there can be no doubt but that the fruiting top is influenced by
the stock upon which it is worked. The present nursery practice is to
buy peach-pits, whatsoever they may be, at the lowest price, sow them
in nursery rows and at the proper time bud to named varieties. Time
was, in the East at least, when the pits came from the run-wild peaches
of the southern states from which grew vigorous, healthy and fairly
uniform seedlings but it is to be feared that most of the pits, the
country over, now come from the canneries and from varieties so diverse
in vigor, habit and season that the resulting seedlings are variable
and must make variable the trees grown upon them. It is greatly to
be regretted that the practice of growing peach stock from southern
wild seed has been departed from though even a better practice might
be to grow trees from some vigorous variety or, possibly, a different
species, as _Prunus davidiana_, which is now largely used in China.
_Prunus davidiana_ has, as we have stated in discussing the species,
been tried very widely in the United States and seems to have many
excellent qualities for a stock. The seedlings are vigorous, healthy,
hardy, bud readily and the seeds keep well and sprout very uniformly so
that usually there is a good stand. Perhaps the character that commends
it most highly at present, however, is the hardiness of the species.
It is proving hardy in colder regions than those where the peach is
now a commercial crop, so that, wherever this fruit as now grown is at
the mercy of the winter, _Prunus davidiana_ is a promising substitute
for the hit-and-miss stocks now used. The drawbacks to the use of
the Chinese species are that it does not bear fruits of any value
whatsoever so that the crop would have to be grown for the pits alone
and, because of very early blossoming, the trees bear only in most
favored situations as regards spring frosts.
Peach-on-peach is now the rule in eastern America but in Europe, and to
a lesser extent on the Pacific slope, several other species are used.
Thus, the hard-shelled Sweet Almond has long been used in Europe and
is found to make a hardy, strong stock in dry soils in California. The
Damson and St. Julian plums have been used with varying satisfaction in
moist and heavy soils in America; and in Europe, these, with the Muscle
and Pear plums, are common stocks for the peach. Peaches are dwarfed
somewhat by all plum-stocks. The Myrobalan plum, very commonly used for
nearly all cultivated plums, was at one time recommended for the peach
but turned out to be very unsatisfactory and is now practically never
used. The nectarine, Peento and Honey peaches are budded upon seedling
peaches.
A stock greatly desired in peach-growing is one that will dwarf the
tree sufficiently so that winter-protection for buds and wood is
practicable. The late E. S. Goff of Wisconsin tried for some years
to find such a stock. He reports[257] working several hundred buds
on the dwarf Flowering-Almond without a single union. Better success
attended efforts with the peach on the dwarf Sand Cherry, _Prunus
besseyii_, of the Rocky Mountains. Of the results, as he dismisses the
flowering-almond, he says:
"I next tried a form of the Sand Cherry, grown from pits procured in
western Iowa. This shrub is quite dwarf, attaining a height of only two
or three feet. With this stock I have been more successful. I inserted
a few buds in it in 1893, and while I had less expectation of success
than with the Flowering Almond, I succeeded much better. The Peach
grew vigorously on this stock, and by the second year had attained the
height of about five feet. The past season, although the best growing
season we have had for some years, the Peach-trees on this stock have
scarcely increased in height. They have branched rather thickly, and
at present are well filled with flower-buds, from which I infer that
they will probably not grow larger than they now are. At this height
the trees are readily protected by digging away sufficient earth from
the roots, so that the trunk may be bent down readily, when the whole
is covered with earth. The trees blossomed the past spring and set some
fruit, though the fruit failed to mature."
In the same report, Professor Goff mentions trying _Prunus subcordata_
and a dwarf form of _Prunus maritima_ as stocks for the peach but
with what success does not appear. Dwarf stocks for peaches offer an
invitation to experiment which it is hoped some one will accept. Such
an experiment requires little more than land, time and material, for
it is one of those cases in which nothing succeeds like success and
nothing fails like failure so that he who runs would be able to read.
Tied up with stocks is another problem. Much is being said about the
necessity of selecting buds from trees having certain characters best
developed--as vigor or productiveness; large, handsome or well-flavored
fruits; or immunity to some disease. As yet there is no body of facts
to substantiate the claims of those who maintain that fruits can be
improved by bud-selection nor does present knowledge suggest that such
a procedure is a means of fruit-improvement. Quite to the contrary
the histories of varieties of peaches, as they may be read in this
text, suggest that, "Like begets like," while in the light of science
a plant propagated by buds is essentially complete in its heredity.
Yet the whole question is still an open one and fruit-growers are
waiting to know whether putting buds through the sieve of selection is
worth while. The advocates of improving orchards by bud-selection say
little, however, about selecting stocks. There is nothing more certain
than that the stock greatly influences the character of the tree. The
modifications so brought about probably appear and disappear with the
individual--at least we should be the last in the world to hold that
peaches could be permanently modified by the stocks. The point is, if
buds are selected for the tops, the stocks should be selected also. To
do otherwise is to imitate the ostrich--head in the sand, body exposed.
The peach is easy to propagate. Let it be said before going into
the matter, however, that practically all of the trees in the
peach-orchards in New York were grown in nurseries and that it is
probably best to let the propagation of trees continue a business for
the specialist. Still, it is well that the grower know in a general
way the operations in the propagation of the peach-tree. We wish, too,
to put on record the nursery methods used in propagating this fruit at
this period in the history of the peach.
In planting peach-pits, art imitates and quickens nature. In nature the
seeds are self-sown as they ripen, the succulent coat keeping the hard
envelope containing the kernel from becoming stony so that the young
plant bursts forth at the proper season. But in cleaning and drying
seeds for sale and transportation, they become hard and dry and must
be subjected to somewhat special treatment before planting. In mild
climates the pits are soaked or kept moist in sand, earth or other
medium until softened and are then planted in the fall in rows where
the trees are to be grown. In cold climates the stones are subjected to
freezing, thereby cracking them, after which the kernels are sown in
the spring. To freeze, the seeds are placed in strata with moist sand,
saw-dust, straw or other material supplying an abundance of moisture,
and exposed to the freezing weather of winter which usually frees the
kernel from its envelope. The kernels are then sifted from the stones
and sand and sowed in rows four feet apart. Pits which the frost does
not open must be cracked by hand, though this tedious operation is
usually omitted by large nurseries.
The seeds are planted in a rich, well-drained soil, preferably a light
loam with good bottom. By late mid-summer in New York the stocks are
ready to bud, though often the operation extends into September. The
peach is universally budded in America, grafting being most difficult,
though trees can be grown from root-cuttings. The method of budding
is the common T, or shield-bud. The buds "take" in a week or two, but
remain dormant until the next spring when the top of the stock above
the bud is removed to give the cion right of way. At one year from the
bud, two years from the seed, in northern climates, the trees are ready
to be transplanted in the orchard. In the South and on the Pacific
Slope, budding may be done in June, thereby saving a season. These
"June buds," however, excepting under the most favorable conditions,
in the East at least, are weaklings not nearly so desirable as "summer
buds." Occasionally, more particularly in California, summer-budded
stocks are planted in the fall or the next spring as "dormant buds."
In New York, trees older than one year from the bud are seldom worth
planting though occasionally it is necessary to save stocks until their
second season before budding.
In budding, the bud-sticks are cut as needed, after which the leaves
are trimmed leaving about a quarter of an inch of the stem as a handle
to the bud. After trimming, the sticks are wrapped in damp burlap and
are taken to the field--once dried, they are worthless. The buds at
the end of the bud-stick are discarded, the plump, hard buds near the
middle of the stick being the most vigorous. At the point where the
bud is to be inserted a T-shaped incision is made, the transverse cut
being secured by a rocking motion of the knife and the vertical one
by lightly drawing the knife upward from a point about an inch below
the first cut. Before removing the knife a slight twist of the blade
loosens the edges better to receive the bud.
The bud is cut from below upward with a drawing motion of the knife.
Nearly the entire thickness of the bark is cut at the point of the bud
so that it will not crumple when inserted into the stock. Almost no
wood is taken with the bud but on the other hand the bud must not be so
thin that the soft growing tissue between the bark and wood is injured.
The bud is taken between the thumb and forefinger and lifted free from
the wood. With the leaf-stem as a handle the bud is inserted into the
T-shaped incision and pushed down until its "heel" is flush with the
transverse cut. Waxing is not necessary but the bud must be securely
tied.
For this purpose raffia is now almost universally used. It is cut into
lengths of eighteen or twenty inches and moistened to make it soft and
pliable. The strand is first brought firmly across the upper end of
the bud to keep it from working out. Beginning then at the bottom of
the slit, the raffia is wound smoothly upward covering everything but
the "eye" and is tied in a single square knot. This winding must be
tight to hold the bud immovably in place. In from two to four weeks,
depending on the growth of the stock, the raffia should be cut to
prevent its girdling the tree.
In the nursery trade, peach-trees are graded according to caliper
or according to height--rarely both since there is a very definite
relation between the two. The common sizes by caliper, or diameter of
the trunk, are five-, seven- or nine-sixteenths of an inch. According
to height, the grades are "three to four foot," "four to five foot,"
or "five to seven foot." The medium-sized grade is usually the best
since fewer trees die in transplanting, they are much easier to handle
and, more important, provide a better opportunity for the grower to
form the head as he wants it. The smallest grade often has many stunted
trees. A first-class tree is free from insects and fungi or the effects
of either. Other things being equal, a short, stocky tree is better
than a tall, spindling one; one with many branches better than one
with few. The best stamp on a peach-tree, however, is a well-developed
root-system--many-branched, well-distributed, fibrous, fresh roots.
Practically all peach-trees in New York are dug in the fall and kept in
storage through the winter.
THE PEACH-ORCHARD AND ITS CARE
The peach-orchard is the consummation of modern fruit-growing. It is
more than a plantation of peach-trees, for it personifies ideals and
reflects the personality of the owner. A glance at a peach-orchard
and one knows whether the proprietor is lazy or industrious, slovenly
or orderly, procrastinating or prompt. An orchard of dingy, unhappy
peach-trees is an odious sight in the eyes of a good fruit-grower
accustomed to nurturing and fondling his own trees. Tenants seldom
succeed in peach-growing. Here is a case in which Cato, the sturdy old
Roman farmer, is surely right: "The face of the master is good for the
land." The peach in our climate is least able of all fruits to subsist
without the aid of man. The best trees in the best soil, if neglected,
have a short, miserable and profitless existence. These considerations,
then, must bring us to the conclusion that growing peaches differs
somewhat from growing other fruits. If not more difficult it is at
least a finer and more delicate affair in which the laborer and
craftsman working by rule give way to men of higher degree who put
thought, intelligence and taste into their work.
New York is very fortunate in having much land in all of its
peach-districts that is easily prepared for planting. Growers are not
called upon to profane the peach by planting it in a field of boulders
as in New England nor amongst stumps as in some southern peach-regions.
Growers in the State long ago learned that it is an up-hill task to
grow the peach in land not thoroughly fitted at the start. Usually the
land is prepared a year in advance by putting in a hoed crop, after
which it is plowed deeply in the fall, pulverized thoroughly in the
spring and then planted as promptly as possible. Fall-planting is not
practicable because of severe losses following from winter-killing.
The peach-orchard is usually laid out in meridians and parallels in New
York at intervals of 18 by 18 or 20 by 20 feet, the former requiring
134 and the latter 108 trees. The topography of the land sometimes
gives preference to the triangular system of setting and rich soils
or large growing varieties indicate greater distance while poor soils
and small trees suggest closer planting. One thing certain, it is
poor orcharding to set the trees too closely. Peaches picked in the
pleached alleys of a closely set orchard are few, small and poor in
quality. Pride in appearance and convenience in working the trees make
perfect alignment imperative. The peach readily self-pollinates so that
interplanting varieties is not practiced, but, rather, for convenience
in harvesting, varieties are set in solid blocks, growers seldom,
nowadays, planting more than three or four sorts. Laying out the land,
digging holes, trimming roots, setting trees are all kindergarten
operations in fruit-growing, well understood by any one qualified to go
into peach-growing.
As to varieties, Elberta is now the mainstay of all the
peach-districts, coming in as the mid-season crop. Greensboro, Carman,
Champion, and Belle, all white-fleshed; and St. John, Fitzgerald,
Niagara and Early Crawford, all yellow-fleshed, the two series named
in order of ripening, are standard varieties preceding Elberta in
the markets. Standard sorts following are, Oldmixon Free, the only
white-fleshed sort, and Crosby, Late Crawford, Kalamazoo, Chili, Smock
and Salwey, these also named in order of maturity. A large number
of new varieties are on probation in the State of which Arp, Lola,
Edgemont, Rochester, J. H. Hale and Frances are now most conspicuous.
The peach-flora changes rapidly and many of these favorites of today
will be the cast-offs of tomorrow.
In the early life of the orchard, until bearing is well established,
an inter-crop is a valuable asset in New York peach-orchards; on the
other hand, planted in bearing orchards, any other crop than the
peach is a heavy liability. While inter-cropping is not peculiar to
New York orchards it is probably more practiced in this State than in
any other. Few, indeed, are the plantations in this region that do not
sustain themselves for the first three or four years of their existence
on the crops grown between the trees. These are, or should be, hoed
crops like potatoes, cabbage, beans and cannery crops. He is a sloven,
indeed, who would crop his peach-orchard with grass or grain. Along the
Hudson, small-fruits are looked upon as permissible, but are everywhere
discountenanced in western New York.
Occasionally the peach itself is planted as an inter-crop in
apple-orchards. The custom has little to recommend it and is not as
common now as it was a few years ago. The objection to the peach as a
catch-crop in the apple-orchard is that serious complications arise
in orchard-operations, the two fruits often requiring quite different
treatment in their care and, in spraying the apple, the peach is almost
certain to be more or less injured.
In the matter of cultivation, peach-growers are not in the fog that
envelopes and befuddles apple-growers in New York. The peach so
luxuriates under thorough cultivation and, on the other hand, the
jaundiced leaves and hectic flush of the fruit speak so plainly of evil
days when the trees are in sod or unbroken ground that cultivation is
universal. Cultivation, as practiced by the best growers, consists
of plowing the land in the spring and then frequently stirring the
soil until late July or early August. The tools are as diverse as the
kinds of soil. Whatever the details, the surface must be kept level,
covered with a dust-mulch and free from weeds. In soils that are light,
therefore hungry and thirsty, cultivation in the best orchards is
almost continuous. To do full duty in such a soil many men cultivate
weekly. Disking is sometimes substituted for plowing but this is
usually poor policy for the plow buries the mummied peaches that drop
in every orchard to scatter countless myriads of spores of brown-rot
and so perpetuate this plague of the peach-grower. Winter retreats
so sullenly in New York that it is sometimes difficult to find time
and weather for early spring plowing so that increasing numbers of
peach-growers are plowing their orchards in the fall.
The cover-crop follows the last cultivation. There is a growing
suspicion in the State that the value of cover-crops in orchards
has been magnified. Comparative tests do not show that trees or
small-fruits respond to cover-cropping to as great an extent as from
theory one might expect them to do. Thus, in several experiments being
conducted by this Station, apples and grapes give no very appreciable
response to the various cover-crops--at least pay but doubtfully for
the expense of seed and seeding. While there are no very satisfactory
experiments to confirm the assumption, it would seem, however, that
the peach of all fruits would be most benefitted by cover-crops. It is
patent to all who have had orchard-experience that land is in better
tilth when some green crop is turned under in fall or spring; so, too,
all know that a cover-crop sowed in mid-summer causes the peach to
mature its wood and thus go into the winter in better condition; it is
not unreasonable to assume, though it is impossible to secure reliable
experimental data to confirm the belief, that cover-crops protect the
roots of peaches from winter-killing. Leaving out, then, the doubtful
value of the cover-crop in furnishing plant-food to the peach, at least
three sufficient reasons make it a necessary adjunct of a peach-orchard.
Several cover-crops are now in general use in the peach-orchards of New
York, in order of frequency of use about as follows: Clover, vetch,
oats, barley, cow-horn turnip, rape, rye, buckwheat. Combination
cover-crops are less popular than formerly, cost of seed being the
deterrent. Yet many years of experience at this Station and wide
observation in the State, unsubstantiated, however, by any experimental
work, lead to the conclusion that some combination of a leguminous and
a non-leguminous crop makes the most satisfactory cover-crop for the
peach. A half-bushel of oats or barley plus twenty pounds of winter
vetch or twelve pounds of red clover is possibly the most satisfactory
of all cover-crops for this fruit in New York. Occasionally a change
from oats to barley, and clover to vetch should be made and once in
four or five years rape or cow-horn turnip should be worked into the
rotation.
In the matter of fertilizers, the peach-grower early learns humility.
He is no sooner certain that his trees must be fertilized and that
he has at last hit upon the right formula than his check plats or
his neighbor's orchard convince him that he is not getting the worth
of his money in fertilizers. In eastern New York, peach-orchards are
very generally fertilized and rather heavily, the amounts and formulas
being nearly as diverse as the men applying them. In western New York,
commercial fertilizers are comparatively little used in peach-orchards.
Experiments in fertilizing peaches in progress at this Station are
inconclusive and there is nothing to offer from the work here as to
what the peach needs in the way of plant-food. In the present state
of our knowledge, about the best the peach-grower can do is to assume
that, if his trees are vigorous, bearing well and making a fair amount
of growth, they need no additional plant-food. If they are not in the
condition described, look to the drainage, tillage and health of the
trees first and the more expensive and less certain fertilization
afterward. More and more, in western New York at least, growers are
carrying on simple experiments to obtain positive evidence as to what
elements of plant-food their trees need.
The following is an example of such an experiment: (1) Acid phosphate
to give about 50 lbs. of phosphoric acid to the acre; (2) phosphate as
above and muriate of potash to give 100 lbs. of potash to the acre;
(3) phosphate and muriate as above and nitrate of soda and dried blood
to give 50 lbs. of nitrogen per acre; (4) six tons of stable manure is
applied on a fourth plat; (5) a similar plat is left unfertilized for a
check.
No fallacy dies harder than that fertilizers will cure yellows. Nitrate
of soda is a great rejuvenator of trees suffering from yellows brought
on by sod or lack of tillage but no fact in peach-orcharding has been
more thoroughly demonstrated than that neither this fertilizer nor any
other will in the least benefit trees suffering from true yellows or
from the somewhat similar trouble, little-peach.
Of all fruit-trees, pruning is most used with the peach in regulating
the development of the tree. In its early years, we may almost say
that the peach "lives by the knife." At all stages of growth the
vigorous use of the knife is indispensable in keeping the peach in
proper bounds, and yet, rather paradoxically, knife and saw must be
used sometime or other in the life of every peach-orchard to stimulate
growth or at least to force out new growths. Indispensable as a certain
amount of pruning is in training the peach, there is no question in
the minds of those who have studied the subject but that it is much
more often overdone than underdone. There are no fixed rules in pruning
peaches and to discuss in full the diverse theories and practices is
not within the range of this exposition. All that can be attempted is
briefly to set down what the present practices are in the State.
In transplanting, the peach suffers severe root-pruning, an operation
that it does not bear well. Thus deprived of its roots, the young tree
must have its top correspondingly diminished. Two practices are in
vogue in New York in this curtailment of the top as the trees go from
the nursery to the orchard. The most common practice is to cut the
young tree back to a whip and then shorten-in the whip. New branches
spring freely from this bare stub but these do not always come where
they are wanted and often the new wood comes only from the stock. These
objections to pruning to a whip have brought about a modification in
which the branches are cut back to stubs of two or three buds. In a
series of experiments now in progress on the Station grounds it seems
certain that the second method is better than the first.
Two forms of top are open to choice--the vase-form, or open-centered
tree, and the globe-form, or close-centered tree. In the first the
framework of the tree consists of a short trunk, surmounted by four
or five main branches ascending obliquely. In the second the trunk
is continued above the branches, forming the center of the tree,
and, later being headed in, a globe-like head is formed. In New York
the vase-form is nearly always chosen. In neither case is the task
difficult since the peach springs almost at once into tree-form with a
full complement of branches. Beginning with the second year the main
branches are shortened back from one-third to one-half their growth, if
heading back seem necessary, cutting to upper and inner buds so that
the oblique ascending vase-form is maintained. The pruning of the third
season is much the same, except that some of the interior branches
should be removed to open up the heads to air and sunshine. The third
season's pruning is repeated from year to year, having in mind that
the slow-growing, hardy, productive sorts can be pruned much more
severely than the free-growing, tender kinds. Open forks are a serious
menace and are carefully avoided to lessen the danger of splitting when
branches are heavily laden. About the most common mistake is that of
cutting out too much wood, thereby inducing so heavy a growth in the
parts that remain that winter-killing takes place; at best it makes
necessary continued heavy pruning for several seasons to keep the trees
in manageable size and shape.
Heading-in as described in the foregoing paragraphs is necessary
because the peach bears the bulk of its crop high up on its branches,
which are often broken by the weight so that after a bountiful harvest
the orchard looks as if a cyclone had swept through it. As the limbs
lengthen, too, it becomes increasingly difficult to pick the peaches.
Even with annual heading-in the bearing wood eventually gets too far
from the ground and the grower may have to resort to decapitating the
trees--an operation commonly known by the inapt term "dehorning." When
old trees are thus to be rejuvenated the limbs are sawed off during
the dormant season to within two feet or thereabouts of the trunk.
The tree will then form a new head which will in a season or two set
fruit-buds and bear a crop. The orchard may thus very often be renewed
or even re-renewed, lengthening its life by several seasons. In thus
decapitating trees, however, one season is always lost, sometimes two,
and the writer questions if it is not better to give the peach a "merry
life and a short one" rather than resort to decapitation to prolong its
days. Most growers may well throw dehorning into the rubbish-heap of
the not-worth-while.
Occasionally one sees in the State orchards in which the top is sheared
to a level plane. This shearing follows a fashion, now happily going
out, as it cannot come from any well-thought-out design. It takes but
a moment's study of the sheared tree to see the faults of the method.
Strong shoots are cut back too much, weak ones not enough; superfluous
shoots are not removed but, to the contrary, multiplied as in shearing
a hedge. Heading-in some or all of the shoots may be very necessary but
shearing to a line--never.
Summer-pruning is not practiced in New York peach-orchards. No doubt
every grower, however, as he goes about among his trees in the growing
season cuts back a branch outstripping its neighbors, removes an
occasional unruly member or one out of place, pinches here and rubs
there, better to train his trees to the ideal he has in mind. Certainly
no harm is done by such summer-pruning when the trees are strong and
vigorous.
This record of pruning practices in New York cannot be closed
without stating that there are growers who do not prune--not only
through neglect but as a matter of principle. Chiefly, these are
men more accustomed to the other tree-fruits--most of which make a
fair showing without pruning--than to the peach. The peach can go
a few years unpruned without becoming an abnormal orchard-specimen
but left to itself to the prime of life without the reinvigorating
and form-giving knife a peach-orchard becomes a woeful spectacle.
The limbs crowd, choke and kill each other, except the strongest or
those most fortunately placed, which push aloft, bearing at their
extremities sparse-foliaged, parasol-like canopies of jaundiced
foliage which furnish no protection from the blaze of the sun to the
bare, bark-burned, gum-covered trunk and branches. The tree-tops are
populous with dead and dying twigs and do not furnish sufficient
nutriment for the normal development of fruit or tree. These unpruned
peach-orchards, come to old age, are the saddest sights of the country.
After the first few crops, when the flush of vigor has passed, they
cannot be profitable and it would seem the sooner the axe lays them low
the better for the owner. Not to prune the peach is consummate neglect.
Peaches are thinned to improve the fruit that remains, to save the
vigor of the tree, and destroy insect- or disease-infected fruits.
Commendable as these objects are, the practice is all too seldom
observed in New York. The objections are scarcity and high cost of
labor. Still the best growers always thin, doing the work soon after
the summer drop which usually occurs six to eight weeks after the
blossoming-time and just as the pits in the embryonic fruits begin
to harden. It requires good judgment to tell at the time of thinning
what will prove superfluity at the harvest. Vigor of tree, variety,
fertility and moisture in the soil, the season, diseases and insects,
all must be considered. The common advice is to thin the fruits so
that they will not be nearer together than from four to six inches
but the skillful growers adjust the size of the crop to the orchard
and seasonal conditions. Thinning really begins, it should be said,
in the winter when the trees are dormant and redundant branches and
superfluous wood on the parts remaining are cut out. By delaying
winter-pruning until danger of winter-killing is passed many growers
save labor in summer-thinning, since, as early as this, fruit-prospects
are fore-shadowed.
It is interesting to record that peach-orchards are never top-grafted
in New York though it seems to be a matter of rather frequent
practice in the South and far West. There are plenty of occasions for
working over peach-trees in this State; as, when poor varieties are
substituted, or in changes in fashion in peaches, or on finding a
variety poorly adapted to orchard-conditions. But under any of these
unfortunate circumstances in New York the axe and the grub-hoe make
way for a new planting rather than trust to the skill of the grafter.
Old peach-trees can, of course, be either budded over or grafted over
to a new variety but we take it that a century of experience has
demonstrated that changing the whole tree is better than changing the
top.
HARVESTING, MARKETING AND PROFITS
The beginning of the Twentieth Century is marked as a period in which
commercial affairs in agriculture are being more highly developed than
ever before. Temporarily, the idea of making two blades of grass
grow where one grew before is eclipsed by the idea that success in
agriculture is quite as much dependent on business management as on
large production. We need, then, in _The Peaches of New York_ to set
down as precisely as possible, as a record of the times, the business
side of peach-growing. This we conceive, so far as the fruit-grower
is concerned, consists of matters having to do with growing, picking,
grading, packing, cooling and shipping, while the affairs of the
several go-betweens from producer to consumer belong to merchanting
rather than orcharding. Not that the grower is without interest in the
selling of his products--far from it. There is no better ballast to
keep the fruit-dealer steady than knowledge of all of his dealings on
the part of the fruit-grower.
Among Caucasians green peaches have a bad reputation. Adage, prose
and poetry bear witness that any curtailment of the sun's maturing
function in this fruit is going against nature and makes an altogether
unwholesome product. But in China and Japan the peach is habitually
eaten green and hard. Fungi play such havoc with peaches in Oriental
countries that the fruit must be devoured green or the crop is lost.
A green peach is quite as palatable, nutritious and wholesome as a
green olive. The ripe product of the one is just as superior to the
green as is the other. All this not to point a moral or adorn a tale
but to bring out the fact that the green peach is an edible fruit and
that the annual performance of health inspectors in all large markets
in condemning carloads of green peaches as unfit for food while green
olives, apples, pears, plums, cherries and grapes pass muster, is an
unjust discrimination against the peach. The peach is, of course, best
when ripe, soft, melting and luscious, but so are all other fruits
and all should be accorded the same treatment by consumers and health
inspectors.
The peach in western countries is picked for market when it has
attained full size and is passing from the hard state of the green
peach to the softer mature condition. The picker tells by eye and by
pressure of the peach between thumb and finger when a peach is ready
for picking. White-fleshed peaches are green in color when picked
but turn to greenish-white or yellowish-white as maturity proceeds;
yellow-fleshed turn from yellowish-green to lemon or orange-yellow.
The full flavor of the ripe peach develops only when the fruit ripens
on the tree but ripe fruit cannot be shipped and peaches are therefore
picked at the stage in advance of full maturity that will permit them
to reach the market at maturity--one or two days in New York, six or
seven in California. Peach-picking is a delicate business for it is
equally disastrous to gather the crop before it is ripe enough or to
delay a day or two too long.
Few picking appliances are needed for the peach in New York since the
trees are trained so low most of the fruit can be picked from the
ground or from a short step-ladder. The knack of peach-picking consists
of tipping the fruit sidewise with a light twist which releases it from
the branch without the bruise of a direct pull. The care in handling
depends largely on the temperament of the picker--a coarse, careless
ruffian cannot handle the tender-fleshed peach with the consideration
it deserves. Women are much employed in picking peaches. Two systems of
managing pickers are in vogue: They are employed by the day in charge
of a competent foreman; or the picker is supplied with tickets or tally
cards and is paid by the basket. The day-system is commonest and most
satisfactory. When peach-picking is in full swing a man can pick 100
half-bushel baskets in a day of sorts like Elberta in which the fruits
ripen at the same time, but the quantity grows smaller and smaller as
the varieties decrease in size and increase in length of ripening-time.
Peaches are usually graded and packed indoors, being brought under
cover in special picking receptacles into which the fruit is put as
it comes from the tree. Packing indoors is a comparatively modern
innovation, the method a decade or two ago being to pack in the field
as is occasionally done now, more especially for local markets.
Grading peaches is still a matter of local or personal practice in New
York as it is the country over. No state seems yet to have regulated by
law the grading of peaches, as several have done with the apple. The
need is quite as great for such laws for one fruit as for the other,
and no doubt grading peaches in New York will soon be regulated by the
strong arm of the law as is grading apples. The essentials in good
grading as now practiced are fair or large size for the variety, high
and characteristic color, uniformity in size and color, freedom from
bruises and insect and fungus injuries, and full and characteristic
flavor for the variety. Peaches vary much in shape and pubescence
depending on soil and climate--so much that through variations in these
characters the identity of varieties is sometimes lost--but grading is
not yet sufficiently refined to take note of either character. Good
growers sort into at least three grades, counting culls.
Not solely as a matter of record but to inspire further progress as
well, we record the fact that New York is behind the times in the
package used in sending peaches to market. The antiquated Delaware
package, a truncated cone holding a third- or a half-bushel, is now
the most popular package with growers. This package is a poor carrier,
clumsy and easily tipped over, its sides are so thin that the fruit
bruises, it is easily opened by thieves and it is unattractive. The
reason for its popularity among growers may be guessed when its sole
merit is named--peaches need less sorting and are easily packed in this
Delaware package. The grand jury of consumers, the country over, has
declared for a smaller package for dessert peaches than the Delaware
truncated cone and a larger one for culinary peaches. Better in every
way, and more and more used by growers in the State are the several
sizes of climax baskets. The best of all peach-packages, the Georgia
carrier, is just coming into use in New York. It is a crate holding six
four-quart till-baskets. These till-baskets are dainty and attractive,
fulfilling well the adage "good goods come in small packages." The
Georgia carrier is conceded by all to hold the palm of merit for
long-distance shipments of dessert peaches. The bushel and half-bushel,
round-bottom, farm type, the substantial cover supported by a stout peg
between cover and bottom, are being more and more used for shipping the
home canning supply. In western New York the bushel basket, if not now,
promises soon to be the most popular of all peach-packages.
Our common commercial container, the Delaware basket, is seldom a
packed package. The peaches are turned in, assorted somewhat as to
size, and the top layer faced with the red cheek up. The climax basket
requires more care in packing. The fruit must be arranged in layers
and tiers according to the size of peach and basket. Skill and not
a little ingenuity are displayed in packing the dainty till-baskets
for the Georgia carrier, all depending on the size, uniformity and
shape of the peach. The peaches are placed in rows and tiers which
regularly alternate and cover much as in a box of packed apples. The
peach-harvest in New York usually comes in pleasant weather so that the
packing house is generally but a screen from the blaze of the sun, put
up in the orchard. The packages, both before and after filling, are, of
course, kept clean and dry under permanent cover.
The peach is so handsome and delectable, for that matter so pleasing
to all of the senses, that every fruit-grower takes special pride in a
finely-finished product going to market and more often than with any
other fruit advertises his wares with a label. These show original
ownership, where grown, often the variety, always the grade and
usually advertise the whole farm and its product. Some growers have
their labels registered in the United States Patent Office.
New York peach-growers profit more and more from cold-storage. Peaches
can be kept for a few weeks in storage at the freezing point or just
above but they soon lose texture and flavor on coming out and cannot
compete with fresh peaches which reach the markets every day from
some source from May until November. Precooling before shipment, now
but coming into practice, is of inestimable value in the heat of the
summer. The fruit is quickly packed and then cooled to 40° F. in a
central station or by forcing cold air through loaded cars, and then
goes under refrigeration to destination. In eastern New York peaches
go mostly to New York City by night-boat but refrigerator service is
an absolute necessity for western New York and has been very generally
installed by the railroads of the region. The precooling station is to
be the next step in advance.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE NEW YORK PEACH-CROP
In the past the great problems of peach-growers, as of those who grow
other agricultural products, have been cultural in their essential
character. Attention to problems of distribution have had to do with
the opening up of new regions of production--the expansion of the
agricultural domain; with developing means of transportation--railroad
lines, steamboat service, canals; and in developing centers of
consumption in the cities and towns which have been springing up
everywhere in the habitable parts of America. Until recent years,
little has been done in studying the commercial disposition of
agricultural products. Now, however, studies are being made everywhere
of the distributive systems by which products get to market and to
determine what share of the consumer's price should go to the producer
and what to the distributor. Everywhere the importance of these
economic studies is recognized and no producer sees more clearly than
the New York peach-grower the need of improvement in handling products
to distribute risks, reduce risks, decrease the numbers in the vast
armies of middlemen and in every way improve defective distribution.
But these questions belong to specialists--economists. We wish here
only to furnish a few fundamental data which may be of use to all
concerned in the distribution of the peach-crop.
In the economic study of the peach-industry in the State it is
essential to know the volume of the product in the State; what
proportion of the total different sections produce; how the crop is
distributed in consumption; and the movement of the peach-crop from
competing peach-states. These data we undertake to furnish for the year
1915, a normal peach-year, taking the figures from the transportation
lines handling peaches in New York so far as obtainable. The volume of
the product for western New York is shown by figures taken from the New
York Central Railroad[258] and the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Peaches were
shipped from towns as follows:
Adams Basin 26 Cars
Albion 41 "
Appleton 108 "
Ashwood 19 "
Barker 261 "
Barnard 72 "
Brice 24 "
Brighton 3 "
Brockport 116 "
Buffalo 2 "
Burt 244 "
Carlton 25 "
Caywood 16 "
Charlotte 88 "
Covert 21 "
E. Williamson 52 "
Elberta 24 "
Elm Grove 1 "
Fancher 17 "
Fruitland 48 "
Gasport 108 "
Geneva 19 "
Greece 14 "
Hamlin 216 "
Hector 28 "
Hilton 314 "
Holley 27 "
Junius 61 "
Kendall 70 "
Lewiston 432 "
Lockport 119 "
Lodi 3 "
Lyndonville 171 "
Medina 76 "
Middleport 36 "
Millers 87 "
Model City 156 "
Morton 188 "
North Rose 2 "
Ontario 43 "
Pittsford 2 "
Ransomville 38 "
Rochester 214 "
Rushville 3 "
Sodus 126 "
Spencerport 91 "
Trumansburg 11 "
Union Hill 1 "
Valois 5 "
Walker 168 "
Waterport 15 "
Waverly 1 "
Webster 3 "
Williamson 371 "
Wilson 126 "
Wolcott 15 "
---------
Total 4568 Cars
---------
These figures include plums but the shipment of plums in 1915 was so
insignificant as to be negligible and more than offset by shipments of
peaches not accounted for by the carriers named.
In addition to the above the American Express Company took out of this
territory about 175 cars, mostly in less than car-lot shipments.
Accurate figures could not be obtained from the Hudson River Valley
and Long Island shipping points as so much of the fruit is shipped by
water, but, basing the yield in 1915 on the census reports of 1909 as
to yields and number of trees as compared with similar data for these
years from western New York, a rough approximation of the number of
carloads in eastern New York is 600. From reports received from the
chief Hudson River navigation lines it would seem that they probably
carried about one hundred carloads.
Practically all of the 600 carloads grown in eastern New York were
consigned to New York City or nearby towns. From the above table we
may assume that about 5000 carloads were produced in the rest of the
State and we are fortunate in having a record as to where 4419 of these
were consigned. The New York Central Railroad distributed the number of
carloads named as follows:[259]
_No. of_ _Percentage_ _No._
_Cars_ _of Crop_ _Destination_ _Towns_
1,628 36 Buffalo and points west, including Pittsburgh 96
906 20 Pennsylvania and points south of Newberry Junction 72
222 5 Points east of Albany 25
986 22.3 Points north of New York City 145
677 15.7 New York City 1
----- ---
4,419 339
===== ===
Analyzing these figures we find that the 4,419 carloads reached 339
destinations grouped as follows:[260]
9 cities took 2,378 cars, over one-half of the crop,
21 cities took 3,018 cars, two-thirds of the crop,
59 cities took from 4 to 10 cars each,
231 cities took from 1 to 3 cars each,
62 per cent of the crop went outside of the State,
22.3 per cent went to points in New York north of New York City,
15.7 per cent went to New York City
The nine cities which took over one-half of the crop are:
New York 677 Cars
Pittsburgh 555 "
Philadelphia 418 "
Cleveland 156 "
Boston 135 "
Cincinnati 116 "
Syracuse 109 "
Columbus 109 "
Detroit 103 "
----------
Total 2,378 Cars
==========
While these nine cities took over one-half the 1915 peach-crop,
twenty-one cities took 3,018 carloads. In addition to those already
named, these cities are as follows:
Newark, N. J. 77 Cars
Dayton, O. 69 "
Albany 67 "
Utica 64 "
Baltimore 55 "
Troy 52 "
Wilkes-Barre 50 "
Schenectady 46 "
Watertown 44 "
Indianapolis 43 "
Toledo 37 "
Providence 36 "
----------
Total 3,018 Cars
==========
COSTS IN GROWING PEACHES
Peach-growing is a game of chance from start to finish; advantages and
disadvantages in location are exceedingly changeable; risks to tree
and crop attendant on weather are many; the trees are beset on all
sides by diseases and parasites for two of which in New York, yellows
and little-peach, there is no preventive, antidote nor alleviation;
transportation is perilous, competition keen, and markets fitful.
Add variability in investment and the difficulties in calculating
profits in peach-growing are apparent. On the other hand, keeping
accounts in peach-growing is not as difficult and complicated as
in growing other fruits. The peach is not as long-lived, barring
accidents the trees bear more regularly, the crop is quickly disposed
of, orchard-operations among growers are more uniform, and, no doubt,
the very fact that the peach partakes so much of speculation makes
growers a little keener on striking balances at the end of the season.
At any rate there is a great body of material in the reports of the
horticultural societies in New York on costs in peach-growing and from
these data, together with notes taken for several years, we venture to
estimate the present costs per acre of the several items entering into
peach-production. To attempt to go further and calculate profits, with
all of the inconstant factors of yields and markets, would be guessing
pure and simple.
Let us consider the cost of production in a ten-acre orchard. This
unit is now, however, rather too small, for more and more growers are
giving up general farming, finding peach-growing an exacting, full-time
vocation. Often enough it is successfully combined with the growing of
other fruits, but less and less so with the growing of farm-crops. The
first item in cost of production is interest on investment. What value
is to be placed on a New York peach-orchard?
The value must be calculated from the cost of land and trees and
the labor and the deferred dividends until the orchard comes into
profitable bearing. Selling price is never a safe gauge with the
peach, sales usually being made under conditions more abnormal than
in almost any other phase of farming and showing great variability
in every locality. Suppose we place the value at $400 per acre, a
sum sufficiently high to cover, besides the cost of the orchard, the
overhead expenses of houses and barns that would fall to ten acres of
a New York farm. Interest now runs at five percentum so that the first
expense item is $20.00 per acre on investment. Assessment rates on land
so valued would bring taxes up to $1.00 per acre.
The equipment needed to care for a peach-orchard is quite uniform the
State over and the cost of the several items varies scarcely at all,
so that a very close approximation may be made of the total cost. The
items run about as follows: Team and harness at present price, $500;
spraying outfit, $250; wagon, plow, harrow, ladders, crates, pruning
tools, etc., $250; total, $1,000. These figures are below the mark
rather than above but the instances are few in which the equipment
itemized would be used exclusively for a ten-acre peach-orchard; in
fact, with this equipment thirty acres could be cared for. It is not
total cost, however, but depreciation and interest on money with which
we are concerned. Setting these at 20 percentum, we have $20.00 per
acre to charge to maintenance of equipment.
Year in and year out, tillage is the most costly ingredient in the
making of a good peach-orchard. It consists of plowing once a year,
fall or spring, and harrowing on the average at least ten times a
season. High cost of labor brings this item up to $10.00 per acre which
includes seeding the cover-crop but not the cost of seed, for which an
additional charge of $2.50 must be made for a combination crop of red
clover and oats or of vetch and barley.
It would seem easiest of all to ascertain the cost of fertilizers for
the peach but the practices are so diverse and fertilizers are applied
so irregularly by those who use them at all that the data at hand are
almost worthless. Those who plow under cover-crops regularly, spend
little for fertilizers; an occasional dressing of stable manure answers
for fertilization with many; still more, so uncertain of results
as to feel they are "buying a pig in the poke," spend nothing for
fertilizers. We shall enter a charge of $5.00 per acre for fertilizers
though this is without question above the average even if only
successful orchards be considered.
A more certain charge is that for pruning. The problems in pruning are
more of the mind than the hand and once the work is laid out it goes
along rapidly. An acre-average of $3.00 is sufficient to cover the
expense of pruning and thinning may be done, year in and year out, at
the same cost.
The peach-orchard is customarily sprayed but once in New York, an
application of the lime-sulphur wash being made to prevent leaf-curl
and to destroy San Jose scale. The cost of this single spray cannot
be more than $4.00 per acre but to this must be added a charge for
protection against mice and rabbits, destruction of borers and cutting
out trees infected with yellows or little-peach, averaging, all told,
at least $8.00 for keeping under pests.
The services of a peach-grower are worth more than the time of the
men who do the actual labor. It is but fair, then, that an allowance
be made for superintending the work. Since a competent orchardist can
superintend a farm enterprise of several times the magnitude of a
ten-acre orchard, but part can be allowed for superintendence, $300 for
the season being a fair price, or $30.00 per acre.
Picking, grading, packing and hauling are all operations that cost
no two men the same for any one. Without attempting to segregate
these items an approximation of the total cost of all, based on a
considerable amount of data, is $30.00 per acre. This sum does not
include the cost of packages.
This brings us to a summary of the cost sheet in growing the average
acre of peaches:
Interest on investment $20.00
Taxes 1.00
Depreciation in equipment and interest 20.00
Tillage 10.00
Cover-crop seed 2.50
Fertilizers 5.00
Pruning and thinning 6.00
Keeping pests under 8.00
Superintendence 30.00
Picking, grading, packing and hauling 30.00
-------
$132.50
=======
Pushing this calculation further, the cost per tree runs at $1.32-1/2,
there being 100 trees to the acre in the average orchard in the State.
Peach-growers expect 150 bushels per acre during the bearing time of
the peach, and dividing 132.50 by 150 we have 88-1/3 cents as the
average cost, exclusive of the package, per bushel of peaches in
New York. In this calculation it is assumed that the peach comes in
profitable bearing at five years after setting and that the orchard is
on the home stretch in the fifteenth lap, giving ten bearing seasons,
at least three of which will be fruitless.
Peach-growers to whom this cost sheet has been submitted say 88
cents is too high a cost for producing a bushel of peaches but asked
to consider the several items agree that most of them are too low.
No doubt few who figure the cost of production include the item of
superintendency which increases the cost for each bushel 20 cents.
So, too, the average yield given is considered high. Granting that
they may be high, all of the figures are permitted to stand, on the
theory that the yield bears a close relationship to the expense of
production--increased costs stand for increased yields. In tabulations
of this kind much is usually made of the cost of bringing the orchard
in bearing. In this calculation the high charge of investment goes to
cover the cost of the first five years, the period of incubation, so
to speak, and it is certain that this, with the sale of inter-crops,
covers all expenditures for the first five years.
DISEASES OF THE PEACH
The peach is attacked by a half-score or more diseases in New York,
two of which, yellows and little-peach, have this fruit quite at
their mercy, there being no preventive, antidote, nor means of
alleviation for either. Two other diseases, brown-rot and leaf-curl,
are always present and often bring disaster, their virulency depending
on locality, season, weather and variety, but both are amenable to
treatment and at most destroy only foliage and fruit, while yellows and
little-peach take their toll in trees. The several other diseases to be
discussed are either easily controlled or are of minor importance.
Yellows is a malignant disease or condition of the peach, very
contagious, usually virulent, of which we know neither cause, origin
nor cure. We know only its unmistakable symptoms, its terrible
consequences. The history of yellows, the circumstances of its coming
and its effects have been given in a foregoing chapter so that we need
to discuss now only the symptoms and means of preventing the direct
results of the disease.
In its later stages the symptoms are characteristic enough and cannot
be confounded with those of any other malady or condition of the
tree. The marks of yellows are: (1) Premature ripening of the fruit
accompanied by red blotches over the surface and red streaks running
through the flesh; (2) premature unfolding of leaf-buds into willowy
growths of tips and the production of shoots upon the trunk or main
branches with growths developing into bunchy tufts of yellow or reddish
foliage; (3) total discoloration of the foliage.
Prematureness in ripening varies from a few days to several weeks;
the earlier it occurs, the smaller the fruit. When diseased fruit
ripens near the normal season the peaches may be full size, showy to
voluptuousness and marked outwardly only by the hectic red of the
disease. The taste indicates the disease--in insipid, mawkish or bitter
specimens which show the red color and undersize of prematured peaches.
During the first season prematured fruit may show only on particular
branches or even on a single shoot which may not differ in appearance
from other parts of the tree. Prematureness, unaccompanied by other
symptoms of yellows, may be due to borers, drought, neglect, girdling
or similar causes.
The second symptom is the opening of winter-buds out of season.
This usually occurs a year later than the appearance of prematured,
red-colored fruits. The buds may push forth shortly after they have
formed in mid-summer while the tree-top is still bearing its fruit
and foliage or they may delay until the next spring, to appear a few
days in advance of normal leafing-time. Very often these buds begin
growth in the autumn after healthy leaves have fallen. Such diseased
buds may develop on tips of branches, especially water-sprouts, but
feeble, sickly shoots due to the disease usually appear in considerable
numbers on main limbs and on the trunk, no doubt under the influence of
the yellows on old resting buds buried deep in the bark of the wood.
Sometimes these yellow shoots are unbranched but oftener they are much
branched and frequently but bunchy tufts of foliage, stems slender,
leaves pale green, small, narrow and standing out stiffly at nearly
right angles to the stems.
In the final stage of the disease the trees assume the yellowish leaves
which give name to the trouble, though sometimes the yellow is tinged
with red. Yellows is an unfortunate name since so many other troubles
of the peach cause the foliage to take on the jaundiced appearance of
this disease. The third stage marks the beginning of the end--sometimes
three years, sometimes five or six, but always death sooner or later,
there being no instance on record of a diseased tree having been cured.
This, in brief, is the usual course of yellows, but it follows no
invariable rule in its development. Yellows is known to be spread as
a contagion by affected buds in nursery stock, by nursery-trees, by
orchard-trees, and may even be communicated by pits from affected
trees. That it must be caused or transmitted in still other ways is
apparent to all who have had experience with the disease. It seems
not, however, to linger in the soil, for trees may be set in the very
spots from whence diseased plants have been removed without danger to
the newcomer. "War to the knife and the knife to the hilt"--absolute
extermination, root and branch, by ax and fire, is the only known
method of subduing yellows.
Little-peach is possibly a variant of peach-yellows or, at least,
is very similar in nature. It seems to have been described first in
Michigan in the early nineties of the last century but had attacked
orchards in New York before that time so that it is now impossible to
say where it first appeared. Be that as it may, the disease is not now
the exclusive possession of either state but in the twenty years of its
history has become as widely distributed as yellows, covering about
the same territory, and seems now to be equally destructive. Outwardly
the disease differs from yellows chiefly: (1) In delayed rather than
premature ripening of the under-sized fruits of little-peach; (2) the
leaves usually show more green than in yellows and show a decided
tendency to droop or roll; (3) little-peach, as a rule, appears later
in the season than yellows; (4) the characteristic, sickly, wiry shoots
of yellows are seldom present in little-peach. Little-peach is kept at
bay, as in yellows, by extermination of affected trees.
Rosette, though distinct in most of its symptoms from yellows and
little-peach, is clearly similar in nature, is just as virulent and
contagious, is communicated in the same ways and requires the same
treatment. On trees affected with rosette the fruits shrivel and drop
and tufts or rosettes of leaves develop freely. Rosette is not found in
New York nor north of the Potomac and hence is of but passing interest
to peach-growers in this State.
Brown-rot (_Sclerotinia fructigena_ (Persoon) Schroeter), known also as
fruit-mold and ripe-rot, attacks flowers and shoots of the peach, but
is most conspicuous on the ripe or ripening fruits. Here its presence
is quickly detected by a dark discoloration of the skin which is
afterwards partly or wholly covered with pustule-like aggregations of
gray spores. The decayed fruits fall to the ground or more often hang
to the tree, becoming shriveled mummies, each mummy being a storehouse
of fungus threads and spores from which infestation spreads to the
next crop. The rot spreads with surprising rapidity on the fruits in
warm, damp weather either before the fruit is picked or in baskets
while being shipped or stored. Preventive remedies have so far met
with but indifferent success; probably the best method of control is
to destroy the mummy-like fruits and all other sources of infection
either by picking them from the trees, or much better by plowing them
under deeply. Even so it is impossible to exterminate all of the
countless myriads of brown-rot spores. Spraying with the self-boiled
lime-sulphur mixture three times at intervals of three weeks, beginning
as the calyxes drop, is the appointed preventive but the results are
uncertain, as this is one of the diseases in which it is difficult to
touch the spot in spraying. Varieties of peaches show various degrees
of susceptibility to brown-rot.
Peach leaf-curl (_Exoascus deformans_ (Berk.) Fuckel) is the best-known
and probably the most prevalent fungus disease of the peach in New
York. The disease appears in early spring as the leaves unfold and
continues until warm, dry, summer weather prevails. The name describes
the disease so that all may know it--the leaves curl, then become
puckered, distorted and much thickened, turn from normal green to
yellow, tinged with red, and finally fall. In severe cases the trees
may be defoliated, though a second covering of leaves almost always
comes out. Leaf-curl is most prevalent and most virulent in cool,
moist weather. The disease is easily controlled by spraying with
lime-sulphur, bordeaux mixture or any other good fungicide applied
while the trees are dormant.
In common with other species of Prunus the foliage of peaches is
attacked by several fungi which produce diseased spots on the
leaves, the dead areas usually dropping out leaving holes as if
punctured by shot, giving the names "shot-hole fungus," "leaf-spot"
and "leaf-blight." Two fungi are in the main responsible for these
leaf-troubles, _Cylindrosporium padi_ Karsten and _Cercospora
circumscissa_ Saccardo. The ravages of these fungi are prevented by the
use of the self-boiled lime-sulphur mixture. With these, as with other
fungi, cultivation has a salutary effect as it destroys diseased leaves
which harbor the fungi during their resting period and keeps the trees
vigorous enough to resist the fungi.
Peach-scab (_Cladosporium carpophilum_ Thüm.) is a common and
destructive fungus in peach-growing districts on the Atlantic seaboard
and is found rather frequently in New York but seldom does much injury
in the State. It appears in sooty, black spots and blotches on the
surface of the peach, causing atrophy and hardening of the parts
affected which, in severe cases, crack badly. Twigs and leaves may be
affected. White-fleshed sorts suffer most and are ruined for the market
even in mild attacks. Self-boiled lime and sulphur, if it does not
wholly prevent infections, at least alleviates the trouble.
Peach-growers in New York are much plagued by a mildew yet suffer
small loss from it, though the disease greatly injures peach-foliage
in some regions. The delicate, white or grayish powder, giving the
name "powdery mildew," consists of the spores and mycelium of a
fungus (_Sphærotheca pannosa_ (Wallroth) Léveillé) which attacks the
leaves of several species of Prunus causing them to curl and crinkle
and sometimes to drop. It occurs most often when there are sudden
changes in temperature. When treatment is necessary, the self-boiled
lime-sulphur mixture is used.
In common with all tree-fruits, the peach is attacked by crown-gall
(_Bacterium tumefaciens_ Smith and Townsend). In New York crown-gall
seldom greatly injures old trees but nursery plants are sometimes
girdled by the galls, seriously injuring them. Badly diseased young
plants, therefore, should not be planted. The galls are tumor-like
structures, usually at the juncture of top and root, which vary from
the size of a pea to that of a large egg, forming at maturity rough,
knotty, dark-colored masses. Neither preventive nor cure is known.
Planting diseased trees is not a safe practice, nor should the peach
be set in ground known to have recently had trees badly infected. The
raspberry is a common carrier of crown-gall and should not be planted
as an inter-crop in a peach-orchard.
The peach suffers more or less from an excessive flow of gum. This
gumming is usually a secondary effect of injuries caused by fungi,
bacteria, insects, frost, sunscald, and mechanical agencies. There
is a good deal of difference in the susceptibilities of varieties to
this trouble, sorts having hard wood suffering less than those having
soft wood. There is less gumming, too, on trees in soils favoring
the maturity of wood, under conditions where sun and frost are not
injurious, and, obviously, in orchards where by good care the primary
causes of the diseases are kept out.
INSECTS ATTACKING THE PEACH
The peach has its full share of troublesome insects, entomologists
listing about forty species, at least half of which are either
destructive or annoying in New York. The peach cannot undergo hardships
and once it is beset by parasites, it does not prosper. No small
part of the peach-grower's time, therefore, is spent in combating
the insect-pests of his trees. The several pestiferous species vary
greatly in importance, the peach-borer probably holding first place in
destructiveness.
The peach-borer (_Sanninoidea exitiosa_ Say) is probably the commonest
and is certainly the most ancient enemy of the peach in America. It
is found everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains and, since it is a
native, its natural host being the wild species of Prunus, it has been
a parasite on the peach from the earliest introduction of this fruit.
All in all, it is the most destructive insect-pest of the peach, its
presence always endangering the life of the tree. All peach-growers
know the peach-borer. It is a white, grub-like caterpillar with a
yellowish, shield-like head, which lives and feeds in the trunk of
the peach just below the surface of the ground, eating out irregular
chambers and galleries underneath the bark, sometimes girdling the
trees. The pest is easily discovered through the exudation from the
infested part of gum mixed with borings and excreta. The borers are
found at all times in the summer, usually very small in late summer
and autumn but an inch or more in length in early summer. The borer
is a larva of a wasp-like moth which lays its eggs in early summer;
these hatch in from seven to ten days and the minute borers work their
way into the tree. The moth may be deterred somewhat from depositing
her eggs by thorough cultivation, mounding the trees and, according
to some, by the use of obnoxious coverings or poisonous washes on the
trunk. Preventive measures are seldom sufficiently effective, however,
and the borers must be destroyed. This is best done by digging them out
with a knife or wire--"worming" in the parlance of the peach-grower.
The lesser peach-borer (_Sesia pictipes_ Grote & Robinson) is rather
infrequently found infesting the peach in New York. It usually attacks
only old trees or those showing injury from freezing or other causes.
The borer is much like the common peach-borer, described in the
foregoing paragraph, but is smaller, seldom reaching the length of
four-fifths of an inch. Unlike the true borer, it infests the trunks
as well as the crowns of peach-trees, feeding in much the same way.
Fortunately the pest is not common in the State, for it is rather
difficult to control, since not only the crown but the trunk must be
reached in worming for the pest.
The plum-curculio (_Conotrachelus nenuphar_ Herbst) is sometimes a
troublesome pest of the peach. It is a rough, grayish, hump-backed
snout-beetle somewhat less than a quarter of an inch in length, an
insect so familiar to fruit-growers as hardly to need description. The
female beetle pierces the skin of the young peaches and places an egg
in the puncture. About this cavity she gouges out a crescent-shaped
trench, the puncture and trench making the star and crescent of the
Ottoman Empire, hence the common name, "Little Turk." The egg-laying
process may be repeated in a number of fruits and from each egg a larva
hatches within a week and burrows to the stone, making a wormy fruit.
Most of the infested fruits drop. Poisoning with an arsenate is the
chief means of combating the pest. Rubbish and vegetation offer hiding
places and hibernating quarters for the insects and hence cultivated
orchards are most free from curculio. The thin-skinned nectarines are
damaged most by the insect but peaches are attacked rather freely.
Early peaches suffer much more than late ones from curculio; thus,
of standard sorts in New York, Greensboro and Carman are usually
injured more or less while Salwey and Chili seldom show a puncture.
The plum-orchard is usually the source of supply of curculio and early
peaches ought not, therefore, be set with or near plums.
San Jose scale (_Aspidiotus perniciosus_ Comstock) is as harmful to
peaches as to any other tree-fruit. The insect is now so well known
in all fruit-growing regions as scarcely to need description. It is
usually first recognized by its work, evidence of its presence being
dead or dying twigs--oftentimes the whole tree is moribund. Examination
shows the twigs or trees to be covered with myriads of minute scales,
the size of a small pin-head, which give the infested bark a scurfy,
ashy look. If the bark be cut or scraped, a reddish discoloration is
found. Leaves and fruit as well as bark are infested, the insidious
pest, however, usually first gaining a foothold on the trunk or a
large branch. Reproduction is continuous throughout the summer in this
climate so that the insects multiply by leaps and bounds. The peach,
possibly, succumbs more quickly than any other fruit, three years
sufficing for the destruction of a young orchard if the pest be brought
in on nursery stock. The rougher-barked, older trees resist longer and
suffer less injury. Still, old orchards are irretrievably ruined in
one or two seasons of unrestricted breeding. Peach-growers, in common
with all fruit-growers, find the lime-sulphur solution applied in the
dormant season the most effective spray in combating this insect.
There are several insect-enemies of the scale that are valuable allies
and entomologists say that the insects seem more susceptible to the
climatic condition of the country than formerly but still natural
checks are far from sufficient and the peach-grower should quickly
attack with the spray-nozzle at the first appearance of scale.
Besides the San Jose there are several other scales more or less
abundant in New York orchards, two of which make the peach their
favorite host. These are the West Indian peach-scale (_Aulacaspis
pentagona_ Targioni) and the Peach-Lecanium (_Eulecanium
nigrofasciatum_ Pergande). Neither, however, is very troublesome as far
north as New York and both are kept well under control by the treatment
for the more common San Jose. The Lecanium is responsible for the
discolored, sooty peaches occasionally found in parts of the State;
for, though the discoloration is caused by a soot-fungus, the fungus
lives in the honey-dew of the scale.
The black peach-aphis (_Aphis persicæ-niger_ E. F. Smith) is sometimes
a serious pest in light peach-soils in New York but is not nearly as
troublesome here as it is in states having a larger proportion of
sandy land since it seems to find life easiest in light, warm soils.
The insect is an intensely black, shining louse with brownish legs.
It lives underground more than above ground, maintaining itself for
most part on the tender roots of newly set or nursery trees, being
found only occasionally on shoots and foliage. An expert eye detects
the presence of the lice by the sparse and jaundiced foliage of young
trees which an untrained eye would say were down with incipient
yellows--indeed countless numbers of young trees have been sacrificed
to the yellow's pyre when they suffered only from lice on the roots.
The pest is easily detected on stock received from nurseries--the chief
source of infestation--and the trees may be dipped or fumigated as for
San Jose scale, thus completely exterminating the aphids. Good culture
and a dressing of some fertilizer will help to carry young orchards
through an infestation though treatment to a dose of a pound of ground
tobacco stems worked in the soil about the roots may be necessary.
There is, too, a green plant-louse (_Myzus persicae_ Sulzer) more or
less common on peaches in the State every season. It is very similar in
appearance to the green aphis of the apple and other plants and makes
its presence known by much the same effect on the leaves. It works on
the underside of the leaves along the veins, causing the leaves to
pucker, curl and crinkle much as with leaf-curl. This green louse,
however, is seldom numerous or harmful enough on peaches to require
treatment. Should treatment be required, no doubt nicotine, now the
standard remedy for aphids on foliage, would keep the pest under.
The fruit-tree bark-beetle (_Eccoptogaster rugulosus_ Ratzeburg), known
in New York as the shot-hole borer, is often a serious menace to old
or decrepit peach-trees. The beetle is a small, cylindrical insect an
eighth of an inch long, one-third as wide, the body uniformly black and
the surface closely and deeply pitted and punctured, the punctures on
the wing-covers arranged in rows. Injury to the peach by this insect is
first indicated by exudation of gum from trunk and branches and later
by numerous small, round holes as if the tree had been struck by shot.
Healthy, vigorous trees are seldom attacked and if so the larvae do not
develop, but a peach-tree suffering a decline from any cause whatsoever
is open to immediate attack and once the pest gains foothold the plant
is doomed. Here, indeed, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure, for keeping the orchard constantly in healthy, vigorous condition
to avoid accidental introduction, and prompt removal and destruction
of infested trees, both preventive measures, constitute the only
satisfactory treatment.
The peach twig-borer (_Anarsia lineatella_ Zell.) imported from Europe,
has at times been a troublesome pest of the peach in parts of the
United States but causes little injury in New York. Still, it can be
found every year in nearly every peach-district in the State and needs,
therefore, to be guarded against since it may some time appear in
sufficient numbers to become formidable. The adult is a moth the larva
of which is about one-half inch long, pinkish in color. This larva
is the borer and in early spring attacks tender shoots boring down
into the pith. It passes from one succulent shoot to another so that
often many wilted shoots may be examined before the borer is found.
Fortunately peach-trees send out shoots about as rapidly as this pest
can destroy them so that in New York, at least, unless the tree is much
weakened in vitality, not much harm is done. The twig-borer has small
chance in a well-kept orchard, but, should it attain headway, prompt
treatment with arsenate of lead will at once cut short its career.
Occasionally complaints come that the common rose-bug or rose-chafer
(_Macrodactylus subspinosus_ Fabricius) is at work on the peach.
Leaves, flowers and fruits are eaten. The fuzz on the epidermis of the
fruit is a deterrent but once a beetle gets through into the flesh, a
dozen more join in the banquet and the peach is quickly ruined. Now and
then one hears of a crop destroyed by the beetle. Insecticides seldom
avail, for the insects are very resistant to poisons. The insects breed
only in waste places and hence they may be looked for in the orchards
of the sloven or where slovenly kept fields adjoin. Cultivation and
sanitation are, then, the preventives. In New York rose-bugs are
abundant only in warm, sandy soils.