518 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
altitude-of 9,000 feet, though not a sure crop north of 40°, In all the 
States south of Delaware it flourishes with the greatest luxuriance. In ~ 
this country alone is it grown so abundantly as to become a common mar- 
ketable commodity, and so cheap that all classes can regale themselves 
on the Gelicious fruit at a small expense. 
The Delaware peninsula, including the eastern shore of Maryland, 
has become probably the most productive peach-growing region in the 
world, the crop sent to market last year having exceeded 3,000,000 bas- 
kets, from an area of about six thousand square miles. Some planters 
in Delaware have peach orchards of 600 acres, with 10,000 to 20,000 
trees, and ship 1,000 to 1,500 baskets daily through the season, each bas- 
ket containing five-eighths of a bushel. Kent County, in Delaware, with 
an area of six hundred square miles, shipped last year about 1,000,000 
baskets. Ohio and Michigan also raise about a million baskets each in 
favorable seasons; and in California it is estimated that 800,000 trees 
have been planted in only thirteen counties. 
The soil for a peach-orchard should not only be dry, but light and 
warm. <A sandy loam is the best, in which the peach seems to delight; 
and which accelerates its maturity and fructification. A clay soil is 
not suitable ; a gravelly one, artificially enriched, is better, and the rich 
alluvials of our river bottoms do very well. Low lands, or those that 
hold water, are unfit, and must be carefully avoided. 
In planting a nursery, the seed of natural, unbudded fruit only should 
be used, which isa fact not generally known. It is more vigorous, more 
hardy, and more certain to germinate, and the trees livelonger. Although 
the seeds of budded fruit will generally grow, they are not certain to doso, 
and they are often diseased and defective, producing diseased and feeble 
trees. The kernels from natural peaches can be distinguished, as being 
smaller than those of budded fruit; they are also of fairer, brighter 
color, closer-grained, harder, and cleaner, with smaller cavities; the 
two valves are closer and more tenaciously closed. From five to twelve 
bushels to the acre are required, according as it is planted closely or 
widely. In the North they are usually planted seven to ten inches 
apart, while in Delaware only two and a half to three inches; and in 
the latter case the nurserymen raise from 10,000 to 12,000 first-class 
trees to the acre. Jor cultivation in the nursery, transplanting, prun- 
ing, budding, &c., in which only ordinary skill and judgment are re- 
quired, ample directions will be found in Mr. Fulton’s treatise. 
In selecting a site for an orchard, as the young wood and fruit buds 
often suffer from the rough northern and northwestern blasts of winter, 
it is desirable to get a spot where they will be sheltered. A southern 
or southeastern slope, other things being equal, is to be preferred. Prox- 
imity to a large body of water is supposed by some to be favorable, as 
materially alleviating the severity of winter and preventing the inju- 
rious effects of late frosts in the spring. But these beneficial results 
are sometimes impaired or neutralized by counteracting ones in a fruit 
So susceptible of atmospheric influences. Thousands of baskets of 
peaches have been known to rot on the trees in Delaware in a single 
warm, wet day, from the want of dry air and sunshine. As orchards 
near water are more exposed to this danger than others, the advantages 
seem to be nearly equally balanced, and the preference must generally 
be determined by other considerations. In the large peach plantations 
in Delaware it is usual to plant early, late, and intermediate sorts, that 
success or failure may not depend altogether on a single variety, and 
that the fruit may ripen progressively, affording the planter a supply 
during the whole season. He is thus better able to manage the crop, it 
