580 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
cago, and other Western cities. One grower in Michigan sells his peach 
crop from an orchard of 12 acres for $12,000 per annum. 
Ohio, Hlinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Kentucky also produce large 
quantities of this fruit. 
In several of the Southern States, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas, &c., 
peach-growing is receiving careful attention, and profitable crops of ex- 
cellent varieties are the result. In California the production is very 
large. 
The estimated annual peach crop of the United States is valued at 
$56,135,000. 
Large quantities of apples and peaches are consumed in the manufact- 
ure of apple and peach brandy—the former being known in the South- 
ern States and New Jersey as “apple-jack.” Some of the peach-can- 
ning establishments also utilize the skin of the peaches, making from 
them a very fair article of brandy. 
Throughout New England and in the Northern States a great many 
thousand gallons of cider are made in the apple years, which is used 
when new, or after it undergoes fermentation and becomes “ hard,” as a 
beverage. Much of it is allowed to go through still further fermenta- 
tion until it becomes a vinegar, which is scarcely inferior to the best 
white wine vinegar, and finds a ready and remunerative sale. 
Much attention has been given to grape-culiure and the manufacture 
of wine. Two hundred thousand acres of land are Nene in vineyards, 
and the grape crop amounts in value to $2,118,900, the whole wine- 
product being 45, 000 ,000 gallons. 
Pears are crown in great abundance, the annual crop being valued at 
$14,130,000. 
The orange flourishes in California and the Gulf States, but only in 
Louisiana, California, and Florida is it extensively cultivated, the soil 
and climate of the two last named States being specially adapted to its 
needs. Florida oranges always command a much higher price in our 
markets than those grown elsewhere, and are certainly superior to the 
imported fruit. The yield from a single tree has reached the almost in- 
credible totai of 30,000 oranges, and an industry which has proved so 
profitable to those engaged in it cannot fail to rapidly increase in extent 
and value. 
The lemon also thrives in the Gulf States, though but little attention 
has thus far been paid to its cultivation. There is no reason why it 
should not be made a profitable crop. 
The fig grows in California and in the Middie and Southern States, 
but attains its greatest perfection in the Gulf States. Nowhere else is 
this fruit so. luscious and so tempting, the smalj purple fig of Louisiana 
and Texas fairly bursting open, when ripe, with its own sweetness. In 
its season it is a welcome addition to the breakfast table, and at din- 
ner it is not the least attractive portion of the dessert; but no attempt 
is made to utilize what is not thus used, and the birds and poultry gen- 
erally dispose of the surplus crop. It would seem that the new system 
of evaporation might be applied to the fig with the happiest results, 
and thus supply a new article for domestic use and exportation. 
With regard to a long list of the smaller fruits, such as plums, ber- 
ries, &e., it may be said that while they can be abundantly and profit- 
ably erewn in the Southern States, they have, save in a few sections, 
seh but little attention. ‘There is, however, a growing interest in 
that direction, and before many years the waste ‘places in the vicinity 
of southern towns and cities will be profitably utilized as market-gar- 
