178 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDIST. 



on the Delaware, yields 20,000 bushels. It is also exten- 

 sively cultivated in the Middle, Southern, and Western 

 States, for the purposes of distillation ; on the refuse of 

 the orchard or distillery, numerous swine are fattened. 



USES. The peach is not only a first-rate dessert fruit, 

 but it makes a delicious preserve. In cooking, the most 

 delicious pies are made of them. For this purpose they 

 require no preparation ; they are used whole, simply placed 

 in deep layers, sprinkled with sugar, and enveloped in the 

 pastry ; no further additions are necessary ; the stone or 

 kernel communicates its flavor, which is superior to that of 

 the costly spices. Peaches are preserved by drying, and 

 in this state they may be long preserved ; and thus pre- 

 pared, they may be either eaten at the dessert like raisins, 

 figs, and prunes, or used in cooking; and might form a 

 valuable article for sea stores or for exportation. I will 

 here describe three modes of drying ; and will suggest, 

 that in drying them in-doors, the furnace should be placed 

 in the cellar, and the drying effected in the apartment 

 above, by an ascending current of heated air. 



In some of the Southern States, the drying process is 

 facilitated by a previous scalding. This is effected by 

 immersing baskets of the fruit a few minutes in kettles 

 of boiling water. They are afterwards halved, the stone 

 separated, and being laid with the skins downwards, the / 

 drying is effected in the sun in three days of good weather. 

 They then may be stored in boxes. 



In France, as we are informed, peaches and other fruits 

 are thus dried whole. The peaches or other fruits, being 

 pared, are boiled for a few minutes in a sirup consisting 

 of one pound of sugar dissolved in three quarts of water, 

 and after being drained by being laid singly on broad 

 dishes, they are placed in the oven after the bread is 

 taken out, and when sufficiently dry they are packed in 

 boxes. The following is the mode of drying practised by 

 Mr. Thomas Bellangee, of Egg Harbor, New Jersey. He 

 has a small house provided with a stove, and drawers in 

 the sides of the house lathed at their bottoms, with void 

 intervals. The peaches should be ripe, and cut in two, 

 not peeled, and laid in a single layer on tbe laths, with 

 their skins downward, to save the juice. On shoving in 

 the drawer, they are soon dried by the hot air produced by 

 the stove. In this way great quantities may successively, 



