1930] Peace Curture IN CALIFORNIA 
In the five states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ten- 
nessee and Arkansas commercial plantings in recent years have not 
been sufficient to maintain the present bearing average. The propor- 
tion of young trees in these five states is now much less than four years 
ago. In 1929 only 25 per cent of the trees were less than six years of 
age as again 67 per cent in 1925. In Georgia about 30 per cent of the 
trees that were in commercial orchards in 1925 have been taken out 
or abandoned, and plantings have only been sufficient to replace one- 
third of them. More than 80 per cent of the decrease in the number 
of trees, however, has occurred in the southern distriet from which 
the earliest shipments are made. 
The peach acreage for the United States in 1919 is shown in 
ficure 1. 
CALIFORNIA PEACH DISTRICTS 
Sacramento Valley District.—Nearly every county in the Sacra 
mento Valley grows peaches. The soil and water conditions are such 
that the peach tree thrives, making a remarkably quick and vigorous 
growth and producing fruit of large size. It is not uncommon for 
orchards to begin commercial bearing at three or four years of age. 
and at five years to produce 15 tons of fruit per acre (see figure 7). 
Sutter County in 1929 had the largest bearing acreage in this 
district, with Placer second, and Butte third (Table 1). In Butte, 
Sacramento, Sutter and Yuba counties mostly canning varieties are 
grown. In Solano, Yolo, and Tehama counties, the varieties are 
mostly freestone, used either for drying or shipping. Placer County, 
located in the Sierra foothills, where the elevation and soil are favor- 
able for shipping varieties, has specialized in growing these kinds. 
During the past few years however, new plantings have been curtailed 
because of unfavorable returns to the grower. 
The principal pests in the valley sections are peach leaf curl, peach 
blight, powdery mildew, peach rust and the peach twig-borer. The 
foothill sections contend with fewer of these troubles having prin- 
cipally peach blight and peach twig-borer. 
San Joaguwin Valley District—The San Joaquin Valley is the 
greatest peach district in California, having about 45 per cent of all 
the bearing acres and about 40 per cent of the non-bearing acres. In 
1929 Fresno County had the largest bearing acreage in this distriet 
followed in acreage by Stanislaus, Merced, and Tulare. On the other 
hand, Tulare County had the largest number of non-bearing acres. 
followed by Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.