]V;/l the Future illan Eat Peaches f 83 



Second Day — Wednesday. 



Eve n I n g Session. 



The Society reassembled at 7:30 p. m., President Earle in the 

 chair. 



Vice-President Miinson was introduced, and read his paper: 



WILL THE FUTURE MAN EAT PEACHES? 



BY T. V. MUNSON, OF TEXAS. 



Mr. President: In this you gave me a hard nut to crack ; but not to 

 be outdone, I shall try it, if I break all my teeth (facts) in the attempt. To 

 start with, I should remark, " That depends : " 



First, whether or not the taste of the future man coniinues, as now, to 

 regard a ripe, buttery, juicy, perfect peach as delicious and healthful. 



Second, whether or not it will be possible to continue to grow peaches. 



At first thought it would seem that we should answer, without hesitat- 

 ing, each horn of the dilemma in the athrmative. Certainly, we always would 

 the first though we are aware of the fickleness of human taste, and how we 

 have ceased to practice the custom of our progenitors of eating the delicious 

 flesh of our human captives, and how devotedly the young ladies take to 

 chewing paste and wax, and the young men tobacco and licorice, in prefer- 

 ence to plain bread. Maybe some inventive genius, taking the hint from 

 butterine, will find a substitute and name it peacharine. We have already 

 tried nectarines, but they just won't do— in Texas. 



However, as we begin to cast up the innumerable vicissitudes of peach 

 culture, we at least admit that the second proposition is worihy of a few 

 moments of serious consideration. 



That we may more clearly comprehend the situation and its future 

 probabilities, let us name a category of the chief and constant drawbacks 

 which environ the grower of this queen of fruits, and then rummage our lists 

 of preventives, curco and palliatives, and try to draw an approximate answer 

 at least sufficient to say whether or not we and our children can reasonably 

 plant more peach trees. 



Let's see ; there are ihe borer, liability to be killed by cold, the curculio 

 the rot, the yellows, tlie leaf-curl, the root-rot of several kinds, the difficulty 

 of marketing, short life of the peach tree, etc. 



We shall at once fall upon this den of thieves and robbers against our 

 honest toil. The life of the successful fruit-grower is a relentless warfare^ 

 The battle is never ceasing. But remember, " a battle well planned is half 

 won." The planning here, as in all warfare, chiefly depends on our knowl- 

 edge of the exact nature and whereabouts of the enemy. 



