40 THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



at an early period in Mexico. Which of the Spanish conquerors brought 

 the peach or when it came does not appear but we have record that less 

 than fifty years after Cortez conquered the country the peach was, appar- 

 ently, commonly grown in Mexico. The beginnings of peach-culture on 

 this continent are, then, to be sought in the region south of the Rio Grande. 



The peach in Mexico. — Authority for the statement that the peach 

 was cultivated in Mexico less than fifty years after the Spanish conquest 

 is found in a Spanish book published by Molina in 1571, in which three 

 peaches are described in Hispano-Aztec compound words as follows: 

 " xuchipal durazno, ' red-colored peach,' cuztic durazno, ' yellow peach,' 

 and xocotlmelocoton, ' peach fruit.' " ' That the peach is to be found 

 everywhere in Mexico, cultivated and as an escape from cultivation, where 

 climate permits is common knowledge to pomologists, explorers having 

 from time to time brought to light sorts worthy of introduction in our 

 southern states, and frequent mention is made of this fruit by visitors to 

 that country. 



These Mexican peaches become of special interest to American fruit- 

 growers because they constitute, with the offspring of early introductions 

 in Florida, what pomologists call the " Spanish Race " of this fruit. 

 " American Race " is a more fitting name, for these peaches are an 

 American product. Four centuries of reproduction from seed, in a climate 

 and soil different from any previously imposed upon them, and abnormally 

 short generations have given to this continent a group of peaches with 

 many characters in common. 



Tracing further the history of the peaches that early came to Mexico, 

 we find evidence that in a comparatively short time they had been taken 

 northward into New Mexico, Arizona and the Califomias. It is barely 

 possible that from the same source the peach was eventually carried as far 

 eastward as the Mississippi, for early explorers found naturalized peaches 



'This early Spanish publication is to be found in the Library of Congress under the title Molina's 

 Vocubalario en Lengua Castellana y Mexicana (1571). Mr. W. E. Safford, economic botanist in the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, has been kind enough to translate Molina's reference to the peach. 

 Mr. Safford writes: — 



" On page 83a (the pages of Molina are numbered only on one side, and this is the reverse of page 83) 

 I find as a definition of the fruit of Melocoton (Peach) the following: — xuchipal durazno (red peach), 

 cuztic durazno (yellow peach), xocotl melocoton (plum peach). I translate xocotl " plum ", because the 

 Mexicans applied this word to many plum-like fruits, or fruits more or less acid in distinction to tzapotl, 

 the general term applied to sweet soft fruits. The words cited are all hybrid compounds of Nahuatl and 

 Spanish. Whatever may be the value of these citations, they establish the fact that the peach was 

 undoubtedly introduced into Mexico before 157 1." 



