The peach-industry in Connecticut is a recent development, as in the South. As late as 1880 the crop was negligible in the State; in 1889, 37,295 bushels were grown; 61,775 in 1899; and 417,918 bushels in 1909. This, considering the smallness of the State and the very uneven surface of much of it, is a rather remarkable development. Winter-killing, which takes place about one winter out of four, is the chief drawback but the high prices received from nearby markets make the peach, despite the occasional off-year, a profitable crop. Connecticut peaches are characterized by large size, bright color and good quality. From Connecticut the industry has spread into Massachusetts where all conditions are essentially the same.

Peach-growing in New York has never been spectacular. Along the lower Hudson before the Civil War and again a decade after it there was a thriving peach-industry such as there was in New Jersey and Delaware. A peach-industry is first of all dependent on quick transportation—the fruit must move. This meant in early days that there must be nearby markets and water transportation—western New York had the latter but not the former. Peaches, however, were early grown, in fact, as we have seen, were cultivated by the Indians, in the lake regions of western New York. In 1828 the Domestic Horticultural Society, the third such organization in America, was organized in Geneva, having for its field ten counties in western New York.[198] The Monroe County Horticultural Society was organized in 1830,[199] and in 1831 the Genesee Farmer and Gardener's Journal came into existence. These institutions bore fruit, more literally bore orchards, and a taste for horticulture, which, together with the nurseries that by this time were being established in the salubrious climate and excellent soil of western New York, gave a perfection in fruit-growing long unrivalled in America and now equalled only in California.

Of the history of commercial peach-growing in western New York, it can only be said that there has been such an industry since 1800. The product of the orchards of the first quarter-century went, for most part, to the brandy-still, for the second quarter it was used at home and for local markets and from then on, since 1850, or a little before, the region has been well to the front in the peach-markets of eastern United States. Changes in the commerce of the continent have made great changes in the peach-industry in New York. In 1825 the opening of the Erie Canal made western New York the granary of eastern United States—wheat was more profitable than peaches. Twenty-five years later millions of bushels of wheat from the plains, carried through the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal to the sea, began to drive wheat out of western New York and make the peach more profitable. This is a fine illustration of the fact that transportation is often as important a factor as soil or climate in the profitable production of a crop. Until figures were taken by census enumerators, the history of the peach-industry could be written only by giving innumerable items taken at random from newspapers of the times. The present status of peach-growing in this region is to be discussed in a future chapter.

Another large commercial peach-region is to be found along the shore of Lake Erie in Ohio. The peach has been cultivated very generally in Ohio since the first settlements there more than a century ago and the industry assumed commercial importance in a dozen or more centers as early, at least, as 1867, when the assessors' returns showed a total crop for the State of 1,402,849 bushels.[200] But what is now known as the peach-belt along the shores of Lake Erie is largely a growth of comparatively recent times, much of the land now covered with peach-orchards having been originally planted to vineyards. Possibly the region was at its zenith in the nineties, the plantings here contributing greatly to putting Ohio in third place at this time among the states of the Union in the production of peaches.

Michigan furnishes an interesting chapter in the history of the peach-industry. The industry was started in what is now the Michigan peach-belt by an Indian trader who planted a pit in 1775 near St. Joseph. From this tree sprang seedling orchards, one of which, near Douglas at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River, numbered 300 trees. There were no budded trees until 1834. A conjunction of several factors now gave peach-growing a tremendous impetus in the State. Chicago, growing with leaps and bounds, demanded peaches; the soil and climate of western Michigan were found to be ideal for this fruit; between the supply and demand was quick and cheap transportation by water. Shipments began in 1834 to Chicago and, as this and other western cities grew, peach-planting in Michigan progressed as probably never before in any other part of the world. In the seventies peach-yellows swept like a wave of fire over the southern portion of what is now the belt, driving the industry northward until at Traverse City the peach reached its highest northern limit in the eastern states. With better control of the yellows, peach-orchards were again planted in the southern parts of the belt and the industry continues to thrive, though with the ups and downs incident to this fruit wherever grown.

Another large peach-growing area lies in southern Illinois extending across the Mississippi into Missouri and Kansas. Westward, in Colorado, Utah, California, Oregon and Washington, are the world's newest peach-orchards, all of which have arisen to commercial importance within recent times. In southern Illinois and Missouri, however, even before the Civil War, peach-growing had assumed sufficient magnitude to be called an industry. The present standing of these later peach-areas may best be compared with that of the older regions by a tabulated report from the United States Census Reports which is herewith printed. In the fluctuating figures of this table one sees the exploitation of the peach. What other tree-crop in the whole world could show more ups and downs in the brief space of thirty years? No state holds first rank two decades in succession; in fifteen states in 1910 there were more trees not of bearing age than there were in bearing; there were more peach-trees in the United States in 1900 than in 1910; the figures most graphically attest the shifting of peach-regions; decreasing numbers represent misfortunes—most often yellows, or San Jose scale, a freeze, or overproduction; increasing numbers stand for a newly discovered advantage. By these tokens we better realize the speculative nature of peach-growing.

Peach-Production in the United States, 1890-1910

StatesNumber of trees of bearing age—Trees not
of bearing
age,
Eleventh
Census,
1890		Twelfth
Census,
1900		Thirteenth
Census,
1910		Thirteenth
Census,
1910
New England:
Maine1,6079,5925,1023,302
New Hampshire19,05748,81957,57135,213
Vermont1,9664,9935,4922,187
Massachusetts87,004301,405154,592162,114
Rhode Island11,81648,06339,34230,795
Connecticut88,655522,726461,711338,608
Middle Atlantic:
New York1,014,1102,522,7292,457,1872,216,907
New Jersey4,413,5682,746,6071,216,4761,363,632
Pennsylvania1,146,3423,521,9302,383,0272,179,386
East North Central:
Ohio1,882,1916,363,1273,133,3682,092,300
Indiana953,9802,925,5262,130,2981,145,479
Illinois783,9102,448,0132,860,120739,358
Michigan1,919,1048,104,4152,907,1702,991,090
Wisconsin3876,9674,1634,148
West North Central:
Minnesota3341,6261,5713,837
Iowa82,238516,1451,090,749283,308
Missouri1,999,4744,557,3656,588,0341,404,429
North Dakota.....290604
South Dakota781,0801,8155,259
Nebraska144,7011,055,9591,188,373263,882
Kansas4,876,3115,098,0644,394,894620,709
South Atlantic:
Delaware4,521,6232,441,6501,177,402212,117
Maryland6,113,2874,017,8541,497,724805,063
District of Columbia1,5211493301
Virginia1,218,2191,939,1131,585,505780,551
West Virginia450,4401,695,6421,424,5821,441,188
North Carolina2,133,0042,773,7882,661,791861,042
South Carolina711,1381,136,7901,336,142349,790
Georgia2,787,5467,668,63910,609,1191,531,367
Florida235,936354,208290,850156,782
East South Central:
Kentucky1,205,8662,884,1932,245,4021,110,744
Tennessee2,347,6992,749,2033,163,7371,190,727
Alabama1,280,8422,690,1513,177,331838,866
Mississippi878,5691,856,7481,726,298724,895
West South Central:
Arkansas2,769,0524,062,2186,859,9622,884,927
Louisiana317,132758,877903,352316,132
Oklahoma2065,848,8084,783,8252,574,680
Texas4,486,9017,248,3589,737,8272,958,813
Mountain:
Montana....1,6705383,386
Idaho13,63979,75773,080212,995
Wyoming....946419
Colorado8,20431,998793,372606,001
New Mexico23,081117,003136,191184,466
Arizona24,95467,07351,41532,562
Utah68,121409,665544,314651,233
Nevada3,9969,1366,3295,049
Pacific:
Washington72,701226,636536,8751,028,141
Oregon115,244281,716273,162508,179
California2,669,8437,472,3937,829,0114,409,562
Total53,885,59799,916,59894,506,65742,266,243

NEW TYPES OF PEACHES

The capacity of species to split into types, using types in a broad sense, is, we all agree, one of the greatest assets of cultivated plants. Through diversity of types come adaptabilities to soils and climates and variety in the crop, to mention but two of the essentials of standard crop-plants. New types afford the material from which greatest progress comes in fruit-growing. In common with all fruit-growing, peach-growing has received impetus from time to time from the introduction of new and distinct types. In the middle of the Nineteenth Century, three previously unknown types of peaches, each divisible into horticultural varieties, were brought to America. All three have had important effects on the peach-industry in America.