1 De Candolle, Alphonse Or. Cult. Plants 222. 1885.

2 Meyer, Frank N. U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants No. 107:862. 1915.

3 Feb. 4, 1916.

4 De Candolle, Alphonse Or. Cult. Plants 228. 1885.

5 Chinese Literature, Edited by Epiphanius Wilson Bk. I:126. 1902.

6 Ibid. Bk. IX:148, 149. 1902.

7 Ibid. Bk. XIII:161. 1902.

8 Cibot, Pierre Martial MÉm. concernant l'hist. les sciences etc. des Chinois. II:280-293. 1777.

9 U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants. No. 102:823-825. 1914.

10 Knight Thomas Andrew Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. 3:1. 1820.

11 Gard. Chron. 531. 1856.

12 Gard. Chron. 27. 1863.

13 Darwin Ans. and Pls. Domest. 1:357. 1868.

14 CarriÈre, E. A. VariÉtÉs De PÊchers 25-33. 1867.

15 De Candolle, Alphonse Or. Cult. Plants 229. 1885.

16 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 227:20. 1911.

17 Ibid. 227:47. 1911.

18 Ibid. 233:76. 1912.

19 Ibid. 233:77. 1912.

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid. 233:78. 1912.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid. 233:80. 1912.

25 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 242:27. 1912.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid. 207:62. 1911.

28 Ibid. 233:76. 1912.

29 Ibid. 233:78. 1912.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

32 Ibid. 106:26. 1907.

33 Ibid. 132:80. 1908.

34 U. S. D. A. Bul. of For. Pl. Int. No. 32:19. 1910.

35 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 233:77. 1912.

36 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Inv. of S & P. I. 21. 1915.

37 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 66:95. 1905.

38 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Inv. of S. & P. I. 32. 1914.

39 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 106:50. 1907.

40 Ibid. 137:31. 1909.

41 Ibid. 233:78. 1912.

42 Ibid. 137:31. 1909.

43 U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants No. 59:404. 1911.

44 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 66:102. 1905.

45 Ibid. 233:80 1912.

46 Ibid. 233:80. 1912.

47 U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants 103:828. 1914.

48 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 66:189. 1905.

49 Ibid. 66:306. 1905.

50 Ibid. 142:21. 1909.

51 Ibid. 66:95. 1905.

52 Ibid. 66:95. 1905.

53 Ibid.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid. 233:47. 1912

56 Ibid. 242:12. 1912.

57 U. S. D. A. Bu. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 137:31. 1909.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibid. 137:46. 1909.

60 Ibid. 66:191. 1905.

61 Ibid. 162:50. 1909

62 Ibid.

63 U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants 51:4. 1910.

64 Ibid. 60:411. 1911.

65 Ibid. 60:412. 1911.

66 Ibid. 62:431. 1911.

67 M. Cibot, a French missionary, writing nearly a century and a half ago in his memoirs concerning the Chinese (II:280-293. 1784), gives the following account of peaches with which he was familiar in China at that time:—

"Peaches are distinguished by size and color, the shape and earliness of their fruit. There are some whose flesh is white, some greenish, some a delicate yellow, some a yellow orange and some marble; some are round, some oval, some lengthened to a point like a crow's beak. Peaches are heard of weighing two pounds or even more. The largest ones I have seen were scarcely three and a half inches in length and diameter; as to earliness, in the middle provinces there are peaches almost as soon as cherries. It is still more astonishing that some varieties do not ripen here till October, and that there is a secret by which they can be kept till January, just as fresh, just as beautiful, and just as delicious as if right off the tree."

68 Ikeda, T. The Fruit Culture in Japan 32, 33. 1907.

69 Loureiro, Fl. Cochin. 315.

70 Royle, Illust. Bot. Himal. 204.

71 Hooker, Sir Joseph, Jour. of Bot. 54. 1850.

72 Hendricks, P. J. P. U. S. D. A. Bur. Pl. Ind. Bul. 97:72. 1905.

73 Meyer, F. W. U. S. D. A. Bur. Pl. Ind. Bul. 132:80. 1908.

74 Montreal Hort. Soc. Rpt. 12:64, 65. 1886-87.

75 Schuyler, Eugene Turkestan 1:296, 297. 1876.

76 Lansdell, Henry Russian Central Asia 1:223. 1885.

77 Lansdell, Henry Russian Central Asia 1:277. 1885.

78 Ibid. 1:608. 1885.

79 Ibid. 2:83. 1885.

80 Bostock and Riley Nat. History of Pliny 3:296. 1855.

81 Bostock and Riley Nat. History of Pliny 3:296. 1855.

82 Ibid. 3:293, 294. 1855.

83 De Candolle Alphonse Or. Cult. Plants 225. 1885.

84 Duhamel Du Monceau Trait. Arb. Fr. 2:1-2. 1768.

85 Leroy Dict. Pom. 6:10. 1879.

86 Bostock and Riley Nat. History of Pliny 4:508. 1856.

87 Leroy Dict. Pom. 6:10. 1879.

88 Cecil, Hon. Mrs. Evelyn A Hist. of Gard. in Eng. 3. 1910.

89 Ibid. 38. 1910.

90 Ibid. 48. 1910.

91 Gerarde Herball 1446, 1447. 1633.

92 Parkinson Par. Ter. 580, 582. 1629.

93 This early Spanish publication is to be found in the Library of Congress under the title Molina's Vocubalario en Lengua Castellana y Mexicana (1571). Mr. W. E. Safford, economic botanist in the United States Department of Agriculture, has been kind enough to translate Molina's reference to the peach. Mr. Safford writes:—

"On page 83a (the pages of Molina are numbered only on one side, and this is the reverse of page 83) I find as a definition of the fruit of Melocoton (Peach) the following:—xuchipal durazno (red peach), cuztic durazno (yellow peach), xocotl melocoton (plum peach). I translate xocotl "plum", because the Mexicans applied this word to many plum-like fruits, or fruits more or less acid in distinction to tzapotl, the general term applied to sweet soft fruits. The words cited are all hybrid compounds of Nahuatl and Spanish. Whatever may be the value of these citations, they establish the fact that the peach was undoubtedly introduced into Mexico before 1571."

94 Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, War Department 3:122. 1854.

95 Bul. Tor. Bot. Club 12:85-86. Aug. 1885.

96 Hilton, William, A Relation of a Discovery lately made on the Coasts of Florida. 1664, Force Hist. Tracts. IV: No. 2:8.

97 Bartram, William Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida 343. 1791.

98 Bartram, William Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida 405. 1791.

99 Ibid. 421. 1791.

100 Kalm, Peter Travels into North America 3:127. 1771.

Peter Kalm is so often mentioned in the fruit-books published by this Station that readers are entitled to know something about him. Kalm was a Swede, born in 1715, died in 1779, who was sent by the Swedish government to travel in North America. He landed in 1748 and spent the next three years in travel in the settled parts of the New World devoting himself to the study of the plant and animal life, the natural phenomena, resources and agriculture of the Middle and Northern States and Canada. On his return to Sweden, Kalm published an account of his travels in America which was afterward translated into German and then into English. To him we are indebted for much valuable information in regard to the beginnings of agriculture and horticulture in the middle of the Eighteenth Century in America. Kalm was a student of Linnaeus and the great botanist perpetuated his memory by naming our beautiful mountain laurel, Kalmia.

101 Le Page Du Pratz, Hist. La. 2:17. 1763.

102 Hennepin Nouvelle dÉcouverte d'un trÈs grand pays etc., etc. 300. 1697.

103 Kalm, Peter Travels into North America 3:79. 1771.

104 Nuttall, Thomas A Journal of Travels into the Arkansa Territory During the Year 1819, 79. 1821.

105 Ibid. 101. 1821.

106 Lawson, John History of Carolina, 181-183. 1714. Reprinted at Raleigh, 1860. Lawson's History of Carolina contains the best description of the natural resources of the southern Atlantic seaboard published in colonial times. It is a book of nature rather than of history and one of fascinating interest which cannot be read without admiring and loving the author and mourning his sad fate. Poor Lawson was burned at the stake by the Indians in 1711. We cannot refrain from quoting his description of North Carolina as printed on page 79 of his history: "A delicious country, being placed in that girdle of the world which affords wine, oil, fruit, grain, and silk, with other rich commodities, besides a sweet air, moderate climate, and fertile soil. These are the blessings, under Heaven's protection, that spin out the thread of life to its utmost extent, and crown our days with the sweets of health and plenty, which, when joined with content, render the possessors the happiest race of men upon earth."

107 Works of Captain John Smith, Ed. by Edward Arber, 887. 1884.

108 De Vries, David Peterson Voyages from Holland to America 50. 1853.

109 Neil, Rev. E. D. Virginia Carolorum 50. 1869.

110 Evelyn, Robert New Albion, Force Hist. Tracts. II: No. 7:31.

111 Norwood, Col. A Voyage to Virginia, Force Hist. Tracts, III:No. 10:5.

112 Hammond, John Leah and Rachel or The Two Fruitful Sisters of Virginia and Maryland 1656, Force Hist. Tracts, III:No. 14:13.

113 Works of Capt. John Smith Ed. by Edward Arber, 886. 1884.

114 Bruce, Philip Alexander Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century 1:468, 469.

115 Beverly, Robert History of Virginia. 259, 260. 1722. Reprinted in Richmond 1855.

116 A New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South Carolina and Georgia. Reprinted in Collections of the Georgia Historical Society. 1:50-51. 1840.

117 An Impartial Inquiry into the State and Utility of the Province of Georgia. Reprinted in Collections of the Georgia Historical Society 1:199. 1840.

118 Oldmixon, John The British Empire in America 2nd Ed. 1:515. 1741.

119 Oldmixon, John The British Empire in America 2nd Ed. London. 1:440. 1741.

120 Watson Annals of Phila. 1:46. 1856.

121 Raum, John O. History of New Jersey, 108.

122 Watson Annals of Phila. 1:46. 1856.

123 Acrelius, Israel The History of New Sweden, or the Settlements on the River Delaware. Stockholm, 1759. Translated from the Swedish by William M. Reynolds, D. D., Philadelphia, 1876, Vol. XI of the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania 151, 152.

124 Kalm, Peter Travels into North America 1:71-73. 1770.

125 Kalm, Peter Travels into North America 1:94. 1770.

126 Ibid. 1:222-223. 1770.

127 Kalm, Peter Travels into North America 2:244, 245. 1771.

128 Mss. in the library of Hobart College, Geneva, N. Y.

129 David Thomas is now scarcely known in horticulture except as he is spoken of as the father of America's well-known agricultural, horticultural and pomological writer, John Jacob Thomas. Yet the father merits recognition for his work in agriculture and horticulture. David Thomas was a Quaker, born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in 1776. He became a civil engineer and moved to Aurora, Cayuga County, New York, in 1805 and began to practice his profession. Later he became one of the engineers in charge of the construction of the Erie Canal and still later performed a similar service in building the Welland Canal. Soon after, we find him a nurseryman and fruit-grower at Aurora. Throughout his entire life, his son writes, he was interested in horticulture, pomology and botany and by his writings on these subjects, published principally in the Genesee Farmer, then the leading agricultural paper in western New York, and in Travels in the Western Country in 1816, published in Auburn in 1819, David Thomas performed most valuable services in forwarding the cultivation of fruits. He was a corresponding member of the London Horticultural Society and of the Linnaean Society of Paris. His articles in the Genesee Farmer and other agricultural papers furnish the most authoritative statements we have in regard to the early history of fruit-growing in western New York. The name of David Thomas ought long to be preserved by horticulturists of the State and country together with that of his illustrious son, John Jacob Thomas.

130 Mass. Records 1:24.

131 Mass. Hist. Collections 4th Ser. VI:499.

132 History of the Mass. Hort. Soc. 16. 1829-1878.

133 Hist. Mass. Hort. Soc. 17. 1829-1878.

134 Darlington, Wm. Memorials of Bartram 81. 1849.

135 Ibid. 93. 1849.

136 Ibid. 177. 1849.

137 John Kenrick, one of the pioneer nurserymen on American soil, began his business career by raising peach-seedlings. His nursery was situated in the towns of Newton and Brighton, Massachusetts, and was founded in 1790. As we have stated in the text, he early acquired the art of budding and possibly was the first, or at least one of the first, nurserymen to offer budded peach-trees for sale. In 1823, he advertised in the New England Farmer thirty varieties of budded peaches five to eight feet high at thirty-three and one-third cents each. These thirty varieties must have included practically all of the named sorts then grown in America. It is interesting to note that he states in the advertisement that the trees were packed with clay and mats. It was in this year that William Kenrick, son of John Kenrick, became a partner of his father. Beside growing peaches, the Kenrick nurseries offered for sale other trees, vine and bush-fruits and ornamentals as well. The Kenricks were also extensive growers of currants from which they made currant-wine, their output in 1824 being 1700 gallons; in 1825, 3000 gallons and in 1826, 3600 gallons. The date and place of John Kenrick's birth cannot be learned. His death occurred in 1833 in the Kenrick mansion, built in 1720, standing near the nurseries. New England, and peach-growers everywhere, owe him a debt of gratitude for his services in horticulture.

138 William Kenrick, son of John, of whom we have just written, was born in 1795 in the family mansion on Nonantum Hill in the town of Newton, Massachusetts. He was trained by his father as a nurseryman and in 1823 became a partner in the Kenrick nurseries, of which he soon after appears to have assumed control. The Kenrick nurseries, at this time, were probably the most extensive and the best known of any in New England. Besides growing the fruit-bearing plants of the time and such ornamentals as were then to be found in America, the Kenricks seem to have taken an enthusiastic part in the craze for the Lombardy Poplar which was then raging in America. The elder Kenrick must have been one of the early growers of this popular plant for in 1797 two acres of his nursery was appropriated to the Lombardy Poplar. The son, in his turn an enthusiast, succumbed to the silk-culture fad and seems in 1835 to have been one of the leading growers of the mulberry, Morus multicaulus for feeding silkworms. In this year Mr. Kenrick published the American Silk Growers Guide, which is, in essence, a treatise on mulberry-culture. William Kenrick's most notable pomological achievement, however, was the publication of the New American Orchardist which appeared in 1833. While not the best of the pomological manuals of the time, it is a valuable contribution to American pomology because of its full descriptions of the fruits of that date. Beginning with his father in 1823, William Kenrick continued in the nursery business for twenty-seven years, probably growing, importing and disposing of more fruit and ornamental trees than any other nurseryman in New England during this time. He died in February, 1872, at the ripe age of 77, having lived to see the orchards planted from his nursery come to full fruition and every part of New England made more beautiful by the ornamental trees and shrubs grown under his care.

139 Hist. Mass. Hort. Soc. 33. 1880.

140 Willich Dom. Enc. 4:244-246. 1803.

141 Am. Farmer 1:406, 407. 1821.

142 Parkinson A Tour in America 1:212-219. 1805.

143 An interesting account of peach-culture in Egypt is to be found in Agr'l Jour. of Egypt 3:Pt. 2:134-137. 1914.

144 A Voyage to Virginia Force's Hist. Tracts 3: No. 5:10.

145 U. S. D. A. Invent. of Seeds and Plants No. 32:14. 1914.

146 Transvaal Agr. Journal No. 10, 3:336. 1905.

147 Darwin, Charles Voy. of a Nat. 1:154.

148 Bertero, Ann. Sc. Nat. 21:350.

149 Oakenfull, J. C. Brazil 358. 1913.

150 Wight, W. F. Proc. Soc. Hort. Sci. 10:122-133, 1913.

151 Agr. Journal of the Cape of Good Hope No. 2, 27:197. 1905.

152 Boucher, W. A. Con. New Zeal. Fruit Growers 89. 1901.

153 U. S. D. A. Bur. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 137:31. 1909.

154 Ibid. 137:48. 1909.

155 Ibid.

156 U. S. D. A. Bur. of Pl. Ind. Bul. 162:50. 1909.

157 U. S. D. A. Invent. of Seeds and Plants No. 32:14. 1914.

158 U. S. D. A. Bul. of For. Plant Int. No. 60:411. 1911.

159 Ibid. No. 60:412. 1911.

160 U. S. D. A. Bur. of For. Plant Int. No. 60:431. 1911.

161 U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants No. 113:920. 1911.

162 Ibid. No. 114:929. 1911.

163 Wickson, E. J. Cal. Fruits 308. 1889.

164 Gregory, C. T. Cornell Bul. 365:219-220. 1915.

165 Trait. Arb. Fr. 35. 1807.

166 Darwin Ans. and Pls. Domest. 2nd Ed. 2:217. 1893.

167 Hedrick, U. P. Science 37:917. 1913.

168 U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants No. 106:858. 1915.

169 Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. 3:1. 1820; 4:396. 1822.

170 See Duhamel Traite Arb. Ed. 2, IV: 112. 1809; Seringe in DC. Prodr. II: 531. 1825; Reichenback Fl. Ger. Exc. 647. 1830-32.

171 De Candolle Or. Cult. Plants, 225. 1885.

172 Commentaries on Dioscorides, French Ed. of 1572. 159-160.

173 Parkinson Par. Ter. 582, 583. 1629.

"I presume that the name Nucipersica doth most rightly belong unto that kinde of Peach, which we call Nectorins, and although they have beene with us not many yeares, yet have they beene knowne both in Italy to Matthiolus, and others before him, who it seemeth knew no other then the yellow Nectorin, as Dalechampius also: But we at this day doe know five severall sorts of Nectorins, as they shall be presently set downe; and as in the former fruits, so in this, I will give you the description of one, and briefe notes of the rest.

The Nectorin is a tree of no great bignesse, most usually lesser then the Peach tree, his body and elder boughes being whitish, the younger branches very red, whereon grow narrow long greene leaves, so like unto Peach leaves, that none can well distinguish them, unlesse it be in this, that they are somewhat lesser: the blossomes are all reddish, as the Peach, but one of a differing fashion from all the other, as I shall shew you by and by: the fruit that followeth is smaller, rounder, and smoother than Peaches, without any cleft on the side, and without any douny cotton or freeze at all; and herein is like unto the outer greene rinde of the Wallnut, whereof as I am perswaded it tooke the name, of a fast and firme meate, and very delicate in taste, especially the best kindes, with a rugged stone within it, and a bitter kernell.

The Muske Nectorin, so called, because it being a kinde of the best red Nectorins, both smelleth and eateth as if the fruit were steeped in Muske: some thinke that this and the next Romane Nectorin are all one.

The Romane red Nectorin, or cluster Nectorin, hath a large or great purplish blossome, like unto a Peach, reddish at the bottome on the outside, and greenish within: the fruit is of a fine red colour on the outside, and groweth in clusters, two or three at a joynt together, of an excellent good taste.

The bastard red Nectorin hath a smaller or pincking blossome, more like threads then leaves, neither so large nor open as the former, and yellowish within at the bottome: the fruit is red on the outside, and groweth never but one at a joynt; it is a good fruit, but eateth a little more rawish then the other, even when it is full ripe.

The yellow Nectorin is of two sorts, the one an excellent fruit, mellow, and of a very good rellish; the other hard, and no way comparable to it.

The greene Nectorin, great and small; for such I have seene abiding constant, although both planted in one ground: they are both of one goodnesse, and accounted with most to be the best rellished Nectorin of all others.

The white Nectorin is said to bee differing from the other, in that it will bee more white on the outside when it is ripe, then either the yellow or greene: but I have not yet seene it.

The Use of Nectorins.

The fruit is more firme then the Peach, and more delectable in taste; and is therefore of more esteeme, and that worthily."

174 Darwin Ans. and Pls. Domest. 2nd Ed. 1:357-365. 1893.

175 Bretschneider E. Bot. Explor. in China 2:860. 1898.

176 Gard. and For. 1:153. 1888.

177 Bretschneider E. Bot. Explor. in China 2:860. 1898.

178 U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants No. 115:940. 1915

179 U. S. D. A. Plant Immigrants No. 72:516. 1912.

180 Prunus Davidiana alba Bean Garden 50:165. 1896; Persica Davidiana alba CarriÈre Rev. Hort. 76. 1872; Prunus Davidiana flore alba Wittmack Gartenfl. 44:129. 1895.

181 Jour. Agr. Research 1:147-177. 1913.

182 U. S. D. A. Seeds and Plants Imported Invent. 13:173. 1908.

183 Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. 3:380-387. 1820.

184 Ibid. 5:525-560. 1824.

185 For a brief history of the life and pomological work of Gilbert Onderdonk, the reader is referred to The Plums of New York, page 392.

186 U. S. D. A. Rpt. 648-651. 1887.

187 Tex. Sta. Bul. 39:826-832. 1896.

188 Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt. 110. 1887.

189 Waugh, F. A. Systematic Pomology, 178. 1903.

190 Hume H. Harold Fla. Sta. Bul. 62: 1902.

191 Gould, H. P. Md. Sta. Bul. 72:129. 1901.

192 Wright, Charles Cyc. of Am. Hort. 3:1240. 1900.

193 Gould, H. P. Md. Sta. Bul. 72:130. 1901.

194 Shallcross, J. T. Md. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 1:17. 1898.

195 Wright, Charles Cyc. of Am. Hort. 3:1238. 1900.

196 Am. Farmer July, 1878.

197 Rutter Cult. & Diseases of the Peach 81, 82. 1880.

198 New England Farmer 7:174.

199 Mag. Hort. 5:12.

200 Ohio Hort. Soc. Rpt. 61. 1869.

201 Jour. Lond. Hort. Soc. 221. 1846; l. c. 265. 1852.

202 Mag. Hort. 475. 1851.

203 Horticulturalist 286, 472. 1853.

204 Horticulturist 1:382. 1847.

205 Rev. Hort. 11. 1861.

206 Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. 4:512-513. 1822.

207 Prince, Wm. Treat. on Hort. 16. 1828.

William Prince, second of the name in American pomology and third proprietor of the celebrated Prince nurseries at Flushing, Long Island, was born November 10, 1766, and died April 9, 1842. His grandfather, a French Huguenot, was the founder of the establishment of which he became owner, and in which he made his reputation. Under his father, the first William Prince, the nursery at Flushing developed into a great commercial nursery, a private experiment station, a testing ground for American and foreign fruits and a botanic garden of American plants. The mantle dropped by William Prince, the father, at his death in 1802, fell upon the shoulders of William Prince, subject of this sketch, then just reaching the prime of life and one of the most brilliant and versatile pomologists the country has known. William Prince continued most successfully the work of his father in breeding new varieties, domesticating native plants and importing foreign fruits and ornamentals. During his supervision the Prince Nursery reached the height of its fame. It was conducted less for money than for love of the work. An attempt was made to grow every American and European plant-species having horticultural value. The catalogs published from the nursery by William Prince are among the best horticultural and botanical contributions of the first half of the Nineteenth Century. Besides these, William Prince is the author of the Treatise on Horticulture, published in 1828, and gave assistance to his son, William Robert Prince, in preparing his Pomological Manual published in 1832. In the description of varieties in this text it will be found that many varieties of peaches were originated, introduced, imported or first described by William Prince.

208 For a brief history of the life and horticultural activities of Prosper Julius A. Berckmans, the reader is referred to The Plums of New York, page 159.

209 Wickson Cal. Fruits 450-456. 1914.

"Trays for Drying.—The fruit is placed upon trays for exposure to the sun. There is great variation in the size of the trays. The common small tray is made of one-half inch sugar-pine lumber two feet wide and three feet long, the boards forming it being held together by nailing to a cleat on each end, one by one and a quarter inches, and a lath or narrow piece of half-inch stuff is nailed over the ends of the boards, thus stiffening the tray and aiding to prevent warping.

A large tray which is used by some growers is four feet square, and is made of slats three-eighths of an inch thick, and one and a half inches wide, the slats being nailed to three cross slats three-eighths of an inch thick and three inches wide, and the ends nailed to a narrow strip one-half inch thick by three-quarters of an inch wide on the other side.

Since large drying yards have been supplied with tramways and trucks for moving the fruit instead of hand carriage, larger trays, three feet by six or three feet by eight, have been largely employed. These tramways lead from the cutting sheds to the sulphur boxes and thence to various parts of the large drying grounds, making it possible to handle large amounts of fruit at a minimum cost.

Protecting Fruit from Dew.—In the interior there are seldom any deposit of dew in the drying season but occasionally there are early rains before the drying season is over. The fruit is then protected by piling the trays one upon another, in which operation the thick cleats serve a good purpose. In dewy regions the trays are piled at night, or cloth or paper is sometimes stretched over the fruit, thus reducing the discoloration resulting from deposits of moisture upon it.

Drying Floors.—For the most part the trays are laid directly on the ground, but sometimes a staging of posts and rails is built to support them, about twenty inches from the ground. The drying trays are sometimes distributed through the orchard or vineyard, thus drying the fruit with as little carrying as possible. Others clear off a large space outside the plantation and spread the trays where full sunshine can be obtained. Drying spaces should be selected at a distance from traveled roads, to prevent the deposit of dust on the fruit * * *.

Grading.—It is of great advantage in drying to have all the fruit on a tray of approximately the same size, and grading before cutting is advisable. Machines are now made which accomplish this very cheaply and quickly.

Cutting-Sheds.—Shelter of some kind is always provided for the fruit-cutters. Sometimes it is only a temporary bower made of poles and beams upon which tree branches are spread as a thatch; sometimes open-side sheds with boarded roof, and sometimes a finished fruit-house is built, two stories high, the lower story opening with large doors on the north side, and with a large loft above, where the dried fruit can be sweated, packed, and stored for sale. The climate is such that almost any shelter which suits the taste of the purse of the producer will answer the purpose.

Sulphuring.—The regulations promulgated under the pure food law enacted by Congress in 1906 established an arbitrary limit to the percentage of sulphur compounds in evaporated fruits, which was shown by producers to be destructive to their industry, and otherwise unwarranted and unreasonable. As a result of their protest the enforcement of such regulations was indefinitely postponed, pending the results of scientific investigation which began in 1898.

From the point of view of the California producer it must be held that before the employment of the sulphur process, California cured fruits were suitable only to the lowest culinary uses. They were of undesirable color, devoid of natural flavor, offensive by content of insect life. They had no value which would induce production and discernible future. Placing the trays of freshly cut fruit in boxes or small 'houses,' with the fumes of burning sulphur, made it possible to preserve its natural color and flavor during the evaporation of its surplus moisture in the clear sunshine and dry air of the California summer. It also prevented souring, which with some fruits is otherwise not preventable in such open air drying, and it protected the fruit from insect attack during the drying process. By the use of sulphur and by no other agency has it been possible to lift the production of cured fruits of certain kinds from a low-value haphazard by-product to a primary product for which Californians have planted orchards, constructed packing houses and made a name in the world's markets.

The action of sulphuring is not alone to protect the fruit, it facilitates evaporation so that about one-half less time is required therefor. Not the least important bearing of this fact is the feasibility of curing fruits in larger pieces. The grand half-peaches, half-apricots, half-pears of the California cured fruits are the direct result of the sulphur process. Without it the fruit must be cut into small sections or ribbons, which in cooking break down into an uninviting mass, while, with the sulphuring, it is ordinary practice to produce the splendid halves with their natural color so preserved that they lie in cut glass dishes in suggestive semblance to the finest product of the canners, and are secured at a fraction of the cost.

There are various contrivances for the application of sulphur fumes to the freshly-cut fruit. Some are small for hand carriage of trays; some are large and the trays are wheeled into them upon trucks. The most common is a bottomless cabinet about five or six feet high, of a width equal to the length of the tray and a depth a little more than the width of the tray. The cabinet has a door the whole width of one side, and on the sides within cleats are nailed so that the trays of fruit slip in like drawers into a bureau. Some push in the trays so that the bottom one leaves a little space at the back, the next a little space at the front, and so on, that the fumes may be forced by the draft to pass between the trays back and forward. The essentials seem to be open holes or dampers in the bottom and top of the cabinet so that the fumes from the sulphur burning at the bottom may be thoroughly distributed through the interior, and then all openings are tightly closed. To secure a tight chamber the door has its edge felted and the cabinet is made of matched lumber. The sulphur is usually put on a shovel or iron pot, and it is ignited by a hot coal, or a hot iron, or it is thrown on paper of which the edges are set on fire, or a little alcohol is put on the sulphur and lighted, etc. The sulphur is usually burned in a pit in the ground under the cabinet. The application of sulphur must be watchfully and carefully made, and the exposure of the fruit should only be long enough to accomplish the end desired. The exposure required differs for different fruits, and with the same fruits in different conditions, and must be learned by experience.

Grading and Cleaning.—After the fruit is sufficiently dried (and it is impossible to describe how this point may be recognized except by the experienced touch), it is gathered from the trays in to large boxes and taken to the fruit house. Some growers put it into a revolving drum of punctured sheet iron, which rubs the pieces together and separates it from dust, etc., which falls out through the apertures as the drum revolves. Others empty the fruit upon a large wire-cloth table and pick it over, grading it according to size and color, and at the same time the dust and small particles of foreign matter fall through the wire cloth. The fanning mill for cleaning grain may also be used for rapid separation of dirt, leaves, etc., with proper arrangement of metal screens.

Sweating.—All fruit, if stored in mass after drying, becomes moist. This action should take place before packing. To facilitate it, the fruit is put in piles on the floor of the fruit house and turned occasionally with a scoop shovel; or, if allowed to sweat in boxes, the fruit is occasionally poured from one box to another. The sweating equalizes the moisture throughout the mass. Some large producers have sweat-rooms with tight walls, which preserve an even temperature. No fruit should be packed before 'going through the sweat.' If this is not done, discoloration and injury will result.

Dipping before Packing.—All fruits except prunes can be packed in good condition without dipping, provided the fruit is not over-dried. Efforts should be made to take up the fruit when it is just sufficiently cured to prevent subsequent fermentation. If taken from the trays in the heat of the day and covered so that the fruit moth can not reach it there is little danger of worms. The highest grades of fruit are made in this way. If, however, the fruit has been over-dried or neglected, it can be dipped in boiling water to kill eggs of vermin and to make the fruit a little more pliable for the press. The dipping should be done quickly, and the fruit allowed to drain and then lie in a dark room, carefully covered, for twenty-four hours before packing.

Packing.—To open well, packages of dried fruit should be 'faced.' The many fine arts of paper lining, etc., must be learned by observation. Flatten some fair specimens of the fruit to be packed (and reference is especially made to such fruits as apricots, peaches and nectarines) by running them through a clothes wringer or similar pair of rollers set to flatten but not crush the fruit. Do not face with better fruit than the package is to contain. It is a fraud which will not in the end be profitable. Lay the flattened fruit (cup side down) neatly in the bottom of the box. Fill the box until it reaches the amount the box is to contain, and then apply the press until the bottom can be nailed on. Invert the box and put on the label or brand; the bottom then becomes the top.

Many different kinds of boxes are used. A very good size is made of seasoned pine, six inches deep by nine inches wide by fifteen inches long, inside measurements, and it will hold twenty-five pounds of fruit. * * *

Peaches.—Take the fruit when it is fully ripe, but not mushy; cut cleanly all around to extract the pit and put on trays cup side up; get into the sulphur box as soon as possible after cutting. Peaches are dried both peeled and unpeeled, but drying without peeling is chiefly done. Peeling is done with the small paring machines or with a knife. Peeling with lye has been generally abandoned because of discoloration of the fruit after packing, although it can be successfully done by frequently changing the lye and using ample quantities of fresh water for rinsing after dipping.

Clingstone peaches are successfully handled with curved knives and spoon-shaped pitters in conjunction with ordinary fruit knives. Different styles are carried at the general stores in the fruit districts, and individuals differ widely in their preferences.

The weight of dried peaches which can be obtained from a certain weight of fresh fruit, depends upon the variety; some varieties yield at least a third more than others, and clings yield more than freestones as a rule. Dry-fleshed peaches, like the Muir, yield one pound dry from four or five pounds fresh, while other more juicy fruits may require six or seven pounds.

Nectarines.—Nectarines are handled like peaches; the production of translucent amber fruit in the sun depends upon the skillful use of sulphur."

210 U. S. D. A. Yearbook 505. 1912.

211 Information supplied by letter.

212 Smith, Erwin F. U. S. D. A. Div. of Bot. Bul. No. 9:17, 18. 1888.

This reference as well as most of those that follow, was found in Bulletin 9, Division of Botany, United States Department of Agriculture, the most complete account we have of peach-yellows, whether of historical facts or of natural history.

213 Smith, Erwin F. U. S. D. A. Div. of Bot. Bul. No. 9:18, 19. 1888.

214 Smith, Erwin F. U. S. D. A. Div. of Bot. Bul. No. 9:19. 1888.

215 Ibid. 19. 1888.

216 Coxe, Wm. Cult. Fr. Trees 215-217. 1817.

217 Prince, Wm. Treat. Hort. 14, 15. 1828.

218 Report of U. S. Com. Patents 242. 1851.

219 Am. Pom. Soc. Rept. 81. 1852.

220 Rutter Cult. & Diseases of the Peach 70. 1880.

221 Horticulturist 1:318. 1846.

222 Am. Farmer 100-102. 1875.

223 Peach Yellows, Houghton Farm Experiment Department Ser. 3. No. 2:27-28. 1882.

224 Horticulturist 503. 1849.

225 N. Y. Farmer and Hort. Repository 46. 1831.

226 Cultivator 255. 1844.

227 Can. Hort. 15-16. 1878.

228 Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 275. 1880.

229 U. S. D. A. Condition of Growing Crops August. 1887.

230 Ibid.

231 N. Y. Farmer and Hort. Repository 9. 1831.

232 Yoemans, John L. Rpt. of U. S. Com. of Patents 166. 1852.

233 Conn. Bd. Agr. Rpt. 169. 1867.

234 Ibid. 173.

235 Trans. Mass. Hort. Soc. Pt. 1:140. 1882.

236 Houghton Farm Exp. Dept. Ser. 3. No. 2:27. 1882.

237 Proc. Am. Pom. Soc. 212. 1854.

238 Rpt. U. S. Com. Patents 369. 1851.

239 Ibid. 378.

240 Smith, Erwin F. U. S. D. A. Div. of Bot. Bul. 9:42. 1888.

241 Ibid. 45.

242 Cult. & Count. Gent. 765. 1877.

243 Ibid. 275.

244 Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 274. 1880.

245 Gulley, A. G. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 249. 1878.

246 Ramsdell, J. G. Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 306. 1882.

247 Lannin, Joseph Mich. Hort. Soc. Rpt. 11. 1884.

248 Black, John J. Cult. Peach & Pear, 81. 1886.

249 Cultivator 167. 1843.

250 Horticulturist 37. 1846.

251 Dunlap, Dr. F. S. U. S. D. A. Div. of Bot. Bul. No. 9:57. 1888.

252 Smith, Erwin F. U. S. D. A. Div. of Bot. Bul. No. 9:61. 1888.

253 Smith, Erwin F. U. S. D. A. Div. of Bot. Bul. No. 9:68-79. 1888.

254 Welsh, F. S. Letter June 9, 1916.

255 For a full report of this investigation see the Report of the New York State Fruit-Growers Association 180-187. 1908.

256 Hedrick, U. P. N. Y. Sta. Bul. 299: 1908.

257 Goff, E. S. Gard. & For. 9:448. 1896.

258 Welsh, F. S. and Anderson, E. H. The Marketing of New York State Peaches 5. 1916.

259 Welsh, F. S. and Anderson, E. H. The Marketing of New York State Peaches 5. 1916.

260 Ibid. 6-7. 1916.

261 For a brief history of William Prince, the first, and his contributions to American pomology, the reader is referred to The Plums of New York, page 389.

262 For a brief history of the life and horticultural activities of Andrew Jackson Downing, whose likeness is shown in the frontispiece of The Peaches of New York, the reader is referred to The Cherries of New York, page 244.

263 The Plums of New York is dedicated to William Robert Prince through the likeness shown of him in the frontispiece. A brief history of his life is given on page 21 of The Grapes of New York and reprinted on page 24 of The Plums of New York.

264 Fruit Trees, published in 1817 by William Coxe, is the first American pomology. Though written by an amateur, during most of his life a merchant, his work was done with so much care and exhibits such nice discrimination in selecting, describing and discussing varieties of fruits that until the later and more complete work of Andrew Jackson Downing and Charles Downing, Coxe's Fruit Trees, competing with several other manuals, was the standard pomological work of America. William Coxe was born in Philadelphia, May 3, 1762, and died near Burlington, New Jersey, February 25, 1831. He seems to have inherited wealth and with it scholarly habits and such refinement and charm of personality that in Philadelphia and later in Burlington, to which place he removed in early manhood, he was one of the leaders in literary, scientific and social circles. His tastes early led him to the cultivation of fruit and he began to grow the varieties then to be had in America and to import sorts from England and France so that by 1817 he was able to say that he had been "for many years actively engaged in the rearing, planting and cultivating fruit trees on a scale more extensive than has been attempted by any other individual in this country." Previous to this for some years, how long cannot be said, he was the moneyed partner with one Daniel Smith in what, for the times, was an extensive fruit-tree and ornamental nursery. Demands for information became so frequent that he determined to put his knowledge in print and his Fruit Trees was the result. The objects he sought to obtain in writing are well set forth in the title page as follows: "A VIEW of the CULTIVATION of FRUIT TREES, and the Management of Orchards and Cider; with Accurate Descriptions of the Most Estimable Varieties of NATIVE AND FOREIGN APPLES, PEARS, PEACHES, PLUMS, AND CHERRIES, Cultivated in the Middle States of America; Illustrated by Cuts of two hundred kinds of Fruits of the natural size; Intended to Explain Some of the errors which exist relative to the origin, popular names, and character of many of our fruits; to identify them by accurate descriptions of their properties, and correct delineations of the full size and natural formation of each variety; and to exhibit a system of practice adapted to our climate, in the Successive Stages of A NURSERY, ORCHARD, AND CIDER ESTABLISHMENT." He was at one time a member of the State Legislature and later a Congressman intimately associated with Daniel Webster. He was, also, an honorary member of the Horticultural Society of London to which during many years he was a faithful correspondent. It was Coxe's privilege to see the very beginnings of commercial peach-growing in America and through his nursery, his orchard and his book he contributed much to American peach-culture.

265 Theodatus Timothy Lyon, fruit-grower, experimenter and writer, was for many years the leading pomological authority of his adopted State, Michigan. T. T. Lyon, as he always signed his name, was born in Lima, New York, January 13, 1813, and died in South Haven, Michigan, February 6, 1900. At the age of fifteen he moved with his parents to Michigan where until his thirty-first year, in 1844, he worked at most of the arts and crafts practiced by pioneers in a new country. In the year named, he began the career of horticulturist, by planting a nursery at Plymouth, Michigan. In the nearby regions French missionaries had early planted orchards and old settlers had long been importing varieties of fruit. The nomenclature of these fruits was in uttermost confusion. T. T. Lyon set himself the task of ascertaining the correct names of these varieties in the old settlements of the State. The result was he became the pomological authority of the State. In 1874 Mr. Lyon moved to the famous "peach-belt" of western Michigan, where he lived until his death. Here, at first, he was president of a prominent nursery company. In 1876 he was elected president of the State Horticultural Society and continued as its active president until 1891 and from then on until his death was honorary president. In 1888 T. T. Lyon wrote a History of Michigan Horticulture which was published in the Seventeenth Report of the State Horticultural Society. From the beginning of his interests in horticulture in southwestern Michigan Mr. Lyon was particularly interested in peaches—growing seedlings, testing new varieties, planting orchards and in every way helping to forward the great peach-industry of the region. He was probably, in his time, the best informed, the most accurate and the most critical judge of peaches in this country. In 1889 he was given charge of the South Haven Sub-station of the Michigan Experiment Station which gave him added facilities for studying and describing fruits and a means of publishing, through his connection with the Experiment Station, bulletins on fruits. These, for accuracy of description of varieties, are still unsurpassed among American pomological publications. Besides these bulletins, the fruit-lists in the reports of the Michigan Horticultural Society and in the American Pomological Society, during the last half of the Nineteenth Century, show the results of his accurate judgment of fruits. A modest man, shrinking from publicity, his printed works but poorly represent his vast knowledge of fruits and his great influence in the betterment of American pomology.