The preceding analyses are evidently of grapes for table use. The juice of the wine-making grapes of California, according to the composition of the wine, contains about 24 percent of sugars.

The luxurious growth of the vine in California is illustrated by Fig. 49, showing a scene in a vineyard near Fresno, California.

Peaches. One of the most valued orchard fruits in the United States is the peach. The peach is a tree which is particularly sensitive to the environment in respect of bearing a crop. In many localities where

peaches have once been valuable they have ceased to produce with any regularity, which renders the planting of an orchard inadvisable. The principal danger in the peach tree is the too early blooming and the exposure of the tender fruit to late frosts. The peach tree is also subject to many forms of disease, one of which, namely, the yellows, has baffled up to the present time the efforts of the experts to diagnose and treat. In planting a peach orchard experience has shown that it is well to plant the trees upon high ground or upon the sides of hills. By being placed on high ground near deep ravines it has been found that the chilling of the air, which would naturally

come with frosts, makes the air heavier, so that it rolls down into the valleys, replacing the air on the hills with fresh portions unchilled and thus protecting the high ground from frost while the low ground is chilled below the freezing point. Everyone must have noticed, especially in the autumn at the time of the first frosts, that the vegetation in low lying land is usually killed before that on the adjacent hills. The peculiar susceptibility of the peach tree to the environment mentioned above has practically confined the culture of peaches to certain definite localities, as for instance to Michigan, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, and Georgia. The danger of late frosts of course does not attach to the peach tree grown in California and similarly situated localities. At the present time Georgia is probably the most important peach-growing state in the Union, both on account of the reasonable certainly of the crop and also because of the early date at which the peach can reach the markets of the large cities of the east and central portions of our country.

Many attempts have been made to protect the peach tree against the danger of premature blossoming and consequent exposure to the late frosts. In the cultivation of the trees it has been desirable to secure a variety which blooms as late in the spring as possible. The building of fires around a peach orchard in the spring when a frost is imminent has sometimes protected the orchard from disaster. This process is known as smudging. Another method of protecting the trees from the danger of late frosts is by whitewashing. The colors which absorb heat most readily are black and purple. White is one of the best protections by reason of its reflective power. A whitewashing of the branches of the trees and in fact of all the tree has been practiced with some success as retarding the early bloom of the buds. Elaborate studies of this method of treatment have been carried on by the Missouri station, and it has been developed that there is a considerable difference between the temperature of whitewashed and unwhitewashed peach twigs. The whitewash is therefore recommended as a means of retarding the development of the buds. The whitewashed trees bloom from a week to ten days later than those which are not thus treated. It is reasonably certain that by means of this kind or by cultivation a peach tree may be produced in any given locality which will put forth its buds from a week to ten days later than the normal period of blooming in that neighborhood. In regions where the winters are severe, the development of the tree in the early spring may also be prevented by placing straw round about it when the ground is frozen. The straw protects the frozen ground from rapid thawing and thus delays the development of the buds. The varieties of peach trees are legion, and it is useless to try to name them here. Some of the varieties most prized in Georgia are the Bishop, Champion, Crawford's Early, Chinese Free, Crimson Beauty, Crosby, etc.

Composition of the Peach.-Naturally, the peach varies greatly in its composition according to the variety, environment, and general accidental conditions. Its chief characteristics, of course, are the acid which it contains, its sugar content, and the taste and aroma due to the essential oils, ethers, etc., which are developed with proper delicacy in the fruit. The peach also has a distinct flavor associated with small quantities of hydrocyanic acid. This poisonous compound is developed in considerable quantities in the kernel of the fruit, and there are sufficient traces of the flavor above mentioned in the fruit itself to give a distinct and characteristic taste. The mean composition of some of the different varieties of peaches is given below:

Free and Cling Peach.-Peaches may be divided into two great classes in respect of persistence with which the flesh adheres to the pit of the fruit. Peaches in which the flesh is separated easily from the pit, leaving the external surface of the pit dry and clean, are called freestones, while in the other variety, where the flesh is firmly attached to the pit and on the removal of the flesh a portion adheres thereto, the term "clingstone" is applied. There is probably no difference in the value of the two varieties, but by reason of the ease with which the freestone peach can be utilized for eating and cooking purposes it is sometimes preferred.

Since the development of rapid means of transportation and the effective. manner of cold storage the peach is exposed in the city markets from early spring to late autumn. The peaches in Florida are ready for the market in May and in Georgia from June on, while in the north the peach ripens at later periods up to October. In fact in the north the late peaches are esteemed as better in flavor and quality, and especially suitable for canning and preserving purposes.

Uses of the Peach.-Peaches are perhaps the most esteemed of all the common fruits for eating purposes. On the table the sliced peaches with sugar and cream is a common dish through the whole summer in almost every part of the country. Peach cobbler (a deep pie) and peach pudding are dishes which are highly esteemed.

Plums. (Native Plums.) The following data represent the mean composition of three samples of California plums:

The plums imported from Japan and the hybrids produced therefrom are considered of higher value than the native plum. The Japan plum (Prunus triflora) has been introduced into this country for many years. They are larger and handsomer and have better shipping qualities than those of native origin, except perhaps in a few cases. The trees are also less subject to that great enemy of the plum, the curculio, than the native plum. Of the plum trees grown in Georgia the varieties of native trees which are recommended are the Clifford and the Wilder, of Japan trees the Lutts, Red June, Abundance, and Chabot, and of the hybrid varieties, the Wickson. Plums in Georgia mature from the first of June until the middle of July. Further north the date of maturity is later. The plum, as well as the cherry, flourishes especially in California, which is more famous for these fruits than any other state.

Quince. The quince is a fruit which is not very extensively used raw, but is valued chiefly as a preserve. The quince flourishes in localities that produce good apples, but the magnitude of the crop is very restricted as compared with apples.

SMALL FRUITS.

Blackberries (Rubus nigrobaccus var. Sativus Bailey).-Among the small fruits one of the most common and abundant is the blackberry. This fruit grows wild over large areas in the United States, mostly in the middle portion between the extreme north and south. The brier on which it grows is an annual plant, springing each year from the roots and dying after bearing fruit. The plant is very largely cultivated, bearing larger and more presentable berries, but gaining nothing in flavor and palatability. The berries are generally black when fully ripe, though red during the ripening stage and sometimes when mature. They are eaten raw, stewed, and in pies or "cobblers." The berry is extensively used for making jams, jellies, and preserves, and for canning purposes. The juice of the berry is used for making a wine, usually with the admixture of sugar. Blackberry cordial is blackberry juice preserved in whisky or brandy.

Dewberry. This is a variety of blackberry in which the vines lie on the ground instead of standing upright. Some of the dewberries possess unusual fragrance and palatability. In other respects they conform to the statements relating to blackberries.

Gooseberry (Ribes oxyacanthoides L.).-The gooseberry resembles very closely the currant in its general properties. In the European gooseberry the surface is covered with prickles, but the American variety is smooth. The gooseberry bush is found in most gardens, affording a fruit of high condimental value. The fruit is eaten raw, but principally in pies and as preserves.

Huckleberry (Gaylussacia resinosa Torr. and Gray).—The fruit of the huckleberry bush is used very extensively for making pies, especially in the

northeastern parts of the United States. There are many varieties of the berry on the markets. The blueberry is one variety that is very abundant. The term whortleberry is also applied to this fruit.

Mulberry (Morus nigra).-The mulberry grows wild over extensive areas in the United States, especially in the Ohio valley. It is a tree valued highly for its wood, which is lasting and excellent for fence-posts. The berries ripen early in the summer or late in the spring and are used as food to a limited

extent.

Raspberry (Rubus strigosus Michx.).—The raspberry is nearly related to the blackberry in all of its characters. It is chiefly a cultivated plant, being less hardy than the blackberry, and therefore not growing wild to such an extent. The fruit matures just before the blackberry, and is usually of a red color and of a pleasant characteristic taste.

Strawberry (Fragaria Chiloensis Ehrh.).—For edible purposes in its fresh state the strawberry is the most important of the small fruits. It is offered on the markets at all seasons of the year-ripening in the winter time in Florida and California and coming into the markets in the late summer in the northern and northeastern states. It grows on vines lying on the ground and ripens early in the spring in the latitude of Washington, viz., from about the middle of May. It is eaten raw-often with sugar and cream-more extensively than any other small fruit. The wild strawberry is not so large as the cultivated variety, but is more highly prized for its aroma and taste. Composition of Small Fruits.

Blackberries,.

Cranberries,.

Huckleberries,.

Raspberries,.

Strawberries,.

SUGAR, STARCH
ETC.
Percent.
10.9

TITI

WATER. Percent. ..86.3

PROTEIN.
Percent.

FAT.
Percent.

ASH. Percent. 0.5

..88.9

0.4

0.6

..81.9

0.6

.84.1

9.9 16.6 12.6

0.3

0.6

.85.9

0.6

7.0

TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL FRUITS.

(Bulletin 87, Bureau of Chemistry.)

Anona. This is a variety of edible fruit grown in the tropics, especially in Cuba, but on account of its restricted production is of little importance. There are three varieties, known as follows: Sweet-sop (anona) (Anona squamosa L.), sour-sop (guanabana) (Anona muricata L.), and custard apple (chirimoya) (Anona reticulata L.). The sour-sop is a green, irregularshaped, pod-like fruit, varying from 3 inches to 12 inches in length and about two-thirds as broad near the top, and curving to a blunt point at the lower end. The skin is thick and covered with numerous small, hooked briers. The pulp has the appearance of wet cotton and surrounds the numerous seed sacs containing the small brown seeds. A fibrous core runs through the fruit from the stem to the lower point. The fruit weighs from 3.5 ounces to 2.2 pounds.