California and Texas

Several public institutions and private individuals are engaged in peach improvement in California. The development of freestone varieties of good quality, attractive appearance, and suitability for market and processing purposes is fostered. There is considerable interest in developing. cling varieties that ripen earlier and later than the standard midsummer group. The origination of both freestone and cling varieties for southern California, where many standard sorts fail to bear because of lack of enough winter cold, is also a major field of peach improvement.

The University of California has breeding programs at Davis and Riverside. Guy L. Philp, in charge of the peach-breeding work at Davis, is studying the inheritance of the nonoxidizing factor in peaches in connection with the development of varieties especially adapted to freezing; and L. D. Davis is studying the inheritance of high and low gum content of clingstone peaches, since high gum content is associated with gumming and splitpit in certain varieties.

Peach breeding at Riverside is primarily concerned with the origin of peach varieties suitable to the mild winter climate of southern California. I W. Lesley is responsible for the work at Riverside, and several varieties (Rosy, Golden State, Ramona, Hermosa, and Sunglow) were introduced in 1939. More recently Bonita, a yellow-fleshed freestone maturing before Elberta, has been introduced.

G. P. Weldon, at Chaffey Junior College in Ontario, Calif., has also been breeding varieties for mild winters. The Chaffey, Fontana, and Weldon were introduced in 1938. The Welberta, named in 1946, is a cross between Weldon and Elberta. It resembles Elberta, but it has a shorter chilling requirement and ripens 10 days to 2 weeks earlier. The Armstrong Nurseries, also of Ontario, Calif., have about the same objectives as those described for Riverside and Chaffey Junior College. Their more recent introductions are Robin, Redwing, Meadowlark, and Flamingo. Curlew and Golden Blush were chance seedlings recently introduced by Armstrong Nurseries.

F. A. Dixon made several promising peach selections. Fred Anderson of Merced recently introduced the LeGrand Kim and Kim nectarines. Grant Merrill of Red Bluff made several promising selections of early shipping peaches.

Efforts at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, under the direction of S. H. Yarnell, are directed primarily toward obtaining superior, early, yellow freestones of dependable production and suited to a mild climate. Particular emphasis has been placed on varieties with desirable fruit and tree characteristics suited to districts where there is not enough winter cold to break completely the rest period of many peach varieties. Five promising selections are being tested for introduction in southern Texas for home use.