THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 49 



as well as plumbs and cherries, grow there upon standard trees. They 

 commonly bear in three years from the stone, and thrive so exceedingly, 

 that they seem to have no need of grafting or inoculating, if any body would 

 be so good a husband ; and truly I never heard of any that did graft either 

 plum, nectarine, peach or apricot in that country, before the first edition 

 of this book. 



" Peaches and nectarines I believe to be spontaneous, somewhere or 

 other on that continent, for the Indians have, and ever had greater variety, 

 and finer sorts of them than the English. The best sort of these cling 

 to the stone, and will not come off clear, which they call plum nectarines, 

 and plum peaches or clint stones. Some of these are twelve or thirteen 

 inches in the girt. These sorts of fruits are raised so easily there, that 

 some good husbands plant great orchards of them, purposely for their 

 hogs; and others make a drink of them, which they call mob by, and either 

 drink it as cider, or distill it off for brandy. This makes the best spirit next 

 to grapes." 



The text for the only other account we have space to publish for the 

 period under consideration is found in Washington's diary for February 22, 

 1760. " Laid in part, the Worm of a fence around the Peach orchard." 

 The information in Washington's short statement is inconsequential but 

 from it we form a pleasant picture of peach-growing at Mount Vernon. 

 Washington owned a distillery and in another place we learn that " the 

 distiller made every fall a good deal of apple, peach and persimmon brandy." 

 To supply the needs of the plantation in fruit and brandy, there must 

 have been a considerable nvimber of trees, all seedlings, but set in straight 

 rows, for Washington, the surveyor, would have no botch work in align- 

 ing and spacing. The fence, the worm of which Washington was laying 

 on his twenty-eighth birthday, if typical of the times, was of split walnut- 

 rails, laid zigzag. Eventually it became trellised with wild grapes, Virginia 

 creepers, honeysuckles and morning-glories. The comers grew up to 

 sassafras, brambles and other plants of the region. In spring, we picture 

 then, the pink-petalled trees, in the peach-orchard at Mount Vernon, 

 making obeisance to the Father of his Country as he rode the rounds of 

 the plantation; in summer the shady shrub-grown corners of the worm- 

 fence, sweet-scented with honeysuckle or aromatic with sassafras, furnished 

 refreshing resting places as Washington watched his harvest; later, the 

 orchard, voluptuous with fruit, gave gustatory promises of products to eat 

 and drink and dazzled the eye with autumn colors of Virginia creeper, wild 

 grape and sassafras. The peach-orchard not only served the appetite at 

 Mount Vernon but was one of the most picturesque spots on the plantation. 



