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.