My Grandfather grew Melrose peaches in the Marysville-Yuba City area in the early 1900s up until the Great Depression, when Bank of America did not even give his family a second chance but repossessed the orchard so that the grandparents could not afford to feed the 2 children, who were sent to relatives in SF and Oakland for years. So they may say that the Great Depression was only 25% unemployment, but the fiscal and social costs were much much deeper.
We had a Melrose peach in the San Jose backyard until it died of old age in the 1980s. I tried to call the so-called farm experts in the Sacramento Valley, UCDavis, and Sacramento to talk to the plant archivists. But no one had any idea that peach variety ever existed!! We would love to have another in our yards ,front or back, but repeated searches on the internet have only resulted in empty fishing expeditions.
Sort of like trying to find replacement wooden pruner/lopper handles ! Stores will sell you pruners with wooden handles, but not the replacement 24-25" two screws to attach handles. What a crazy market.
