CLEMSON, South Carolina - For over 100 years, Georgia has claimed the peach as its own.

An image of the fruit is on the official state quarter and its license plates. In Atlanta, where a giant peach drops from a downtown building each New Year's Eve, a driver can get lost among all the streets with variations on the name Peachtree.

But here is the harsh truth: South Carolina has shipped more than twice as many peaches as Georgia so far this summer. And it has been that way for years.

It gets worse. At the end of July, the University of Georgia officially closed its peach program. And Georgia's peach farmers had to head to South Carolina for a regional peach conference.

"Georgia may be the peach state, but we're the tastier peach state," said Desmond R. Layne, an associate professor at Clemson University and the man who arranged the conference.

The Georgia peach farmers sat grim-faced in the auditorium, unmoved by the enthusiasm of their South Carolina counterparts. Quantity, they said, cannot replace quality.

"They're trying to make it up in volume but they can't best us," said Will McGehee of Pearson Farm, asserting South Carolina nights are too cool for truly great peaches. "The key to a good peach is a hot night," he said.

Georgia began its peach dominance as the South rebuilt itself after the Civil War. In the late 1800s, the state began shipping the Elberta - a firm, yellow-fleshed peach named for a farmer's wife - to New York and other East Coast cities.

But by the 1950s, South Carolina had taken over as the biggest peach-producing state. Now, although quantities have dropped, it ships 81,600 metric tons a year compared with Georgia's 36,000 metric tons, according to United States Department of Agriculture statistics. (New Jersey follows with 29,000 metric tons.)

Georgia peach farmers have been fighting back, claiming superior flavor that can come only from the unique mix of heat and red clay soil in their state.

They are marketing the Georgia peach as an exclusive and seasonal item. They have even resorted to a mascot, someone dressed like a giant peach named "Big Fuzzy."

The brand appears to have an edge, at least among Internet users. Searches for "Georgia peaches" have outpaced those for "South Carolina peaches" by nearly 20 percent since 2004, said Sandra Heikkinen of Google.

So who really grows the best peach? There may be no way to judge. There are plenty of variables: rain, heat and soil conditions all play a part, as does the variety planted and the time from the tree to mouth.

But like any feuding family, siblings unify when outsiders threaten. And in this case, that is California, which dominates the peach market, shipping six times as much fruit as South Carolina and Georgia combined.

Phillip Rigdon, farm manager at Lane Southern Orchards in Georgia, is not worried. "They taste like cardboard," he said.

Dr. Layne of South Carolina agreed: "They just don't taste like a Southern peach."

Josh Tanner, produce coordinator for Whole Foods stores in the American South, is not so sure.

"I honestly don't think you can taste a difference," he said. "There is a lot of state pride and that's what it's about."

The New York Times

(China Daily 08/28/2011 page11)