The fruits, it must be said at once, have been described with other ends in view than identification. Chief of these is the effort to set forth the elementary characters, or unit-characters, of the peach. It is now certain that the characters of plants are independent entities thrown into various relationships with each other in individual plants. On this conception of unit-characters the improvement of plants is founded. An important part of the work in describing fruits has been to discover what seem to be unit-characters in peaches, thereby aiding in building a foundation in breeding peaches. To improve the peach we must combine the characters of species and varieties; we must know what these are before we can rearrange them in an improved peach.
In the marked attention paid to the improvement of plants, following the work of Mendel and others, the peach is bound to receive consideration. Never was information more needed in regard to the processes that have brought peaches from their primitive condition to their present perfection. We have done our utmost to give all that could be learned of the origin and history of varieties with the hope that such knowledge may be helpful to those who are trying to improve the peach.
We wish again to call attention to the great value of definite knowledge regarding the soils, climates and other environmental conditions under which species and varieties of fruits thrive. It is obvious to all thinking pomologists and biologists that, when the ecological conditions under which the several fruits and their many varieties are grown can be accurately specified, valuable generalizations can be made regarding life-zones and plant-distribution. In The Peaches of New York, as in the preceding books, we state as accurately as possible the regions in which and the conditions under which, species and varieties of the peach are successfully grown.
So few species have been considered in The Peaches of New York that we have had no need to refer to codes of botanical nomenclature. In the use of horticultural names, lacking a better code, we have kept before us the revised rules of the American Pomological Society though in many cases we have not seen fit to follow these rules as the changes required by their strict observance would augment rather than diminish confusion.
The references given are those that have been used in ascertaining the history and the economic status or in verifying the description of the variety that follows. All of the synonyms created by pomologists to whose works we have had access have been noted but in no case have we published synonyms quoted by other writers. The work of reading references and seeking out synonyms is a tremendous one, involving nearly three years' work for several persons. We hope that this work sets straight in high degree the great confusion in the names of peaches, but that we, no matter how painstaking, could bring perfection out of chaos, no one could expect.
Again we call attention to the biographical sketches found in the foot-notes. Some men in every profession surpass their fellows in true greatness. Such men there are in pomology, and a knowledge of their career is indispensable to a full comprehension of the industry of growing fruit. In the conquest of America we have honored, so far, only the men who have expressed their energy in conquering the mines, the forests, the fisheries and to a small degree those who have developed the soils; we have shamefully neglected the great men who have developed our native fruits and vegetables and adapted to the conditions of the New World the agricultural products of the Old World. The brief biographical sketches in these fruit-books are written in an effort to give in some measure the credit and honor due to those who have improved fruits.
In the preparation of The Peaches of New York, besides those whose names appear on the title page, I am indebted to R. D. Anthony, for reading proof; to the Station editor, F. H. Hall, for his assistance; to the Zeese-Wilkinson Company, New York City, for the beautiful color-plates of peaches; and to the J. B. Lyon Company, Albany, New York, for good workmanship in printing the book.
U. P. HEDRICK,
Horticulturist, New York Agricultural Experiment Station.