FRESNO, Calif. - Blake Carlson's peaches and nectarines are sweet as summer, dripping with juice and brushed with a fiery red color.

But the Central Valley farmer has left some of them to wither in the orchard, and worse - he's torn up acres of trees. First 10, then 20, then 30 acres, and now he's considering tearing up another 10.

It hurts to see a good orchard go, Carlson said, but when growers who are already squeezed between a flat price for their product and escalating costs hit another bump - in this case, a hot spring that hurt fruit size - they can get pushed right out of the market. Or at least they may have to push out a section of their orchards to reduce costs, he said.

In spite of the struggle to break even, growers vouch for the taste of this year's fruit.

"This is the best-eating fruit I've seen in 10 years," Carlson said. "But it's been a tough season. A lot of growers won't farm in 2005."

California heads the country's production of these quintessential summer fruits. The state's farmers produce almost all the nectarines, about 60 percent of the eating peaches and all of the canning peaches in the United States.

Spring days that approached triple-digit temperatures in the Central Valley ripened tree fruit like peaches and nectarines early this year. This means fruit had less time to grow. The unusual warmth made peaches and nectarines sweet, but smaller than average - a blow to farmers in an industry that pays for looks, to meet consumer demand for big, red, showy fruit.

Also, consolidation of fresh fruit buyers over the past three to five years has weakened the farmers' ability to bargain for better deals, officials from a trade association said.

The average price for tree fruit - plums, peaches and nectarines - this year is around $1.60 a pound, though in some markets, the fruit can sell for much more. But growers are getting as little as 20 cents a pound for some of their products, Richardson said.

Farmers like Carlson said they need about 40 cents a pound just to break even.

A lot of factors influence the difference between what growers get for their fruit and what the consumer has to pay for it, said USDA economist Phil Kaufman.

To ease the crunch, the USDA is buying some of the fruit off growers at market prices, said Jerry Redding, a spokesman with the agency.

The purchases help the farmers, Redding said, and provide nutritious food for school lunches, food banks and programs for the elderly that are supplied by the federal government.