88 OUE COMMON FETJITS. 



The market price of those which are considered worthy 

 of being sold varies considerably, but as they grow on 

 lands too light to afford good crops of almost any other 

 kind, the investment can never be a very bad one ; many 

 growers in New Jersey have, therefore, orchards of from 

 10,000 to 20,000 trees, and in the course of a good season 

 send out about that number of bushels of fruit from such 

 of the trees as are in bearing. Mr. Downing, as the 

 enthusiastic champion of the chosen fruit of his native 

 land, boldly throws down the gauntlet, offering to main- 

 tain its peerless beauty against all rivals ; but, convinced 

 that to praise the American peach would be at least as 

 superfluous an undertaking as " to gild refined gold, or 

 paint the lily," he proposes to stop the mouth of any one 

 who may presume to question its excellence by present- 

 ing him with one of his best growth " a soft answer," 

 indeed, which might well "turn away wrath," but the 

 prospect of which would be rather calculated to tempt a 

 provocation of the discussion, for the sake of incurring the 

 termination of it by so melting an argument. 



Besides the immense quantities consumed while fresh, 

 peach pie being as common fare in an American farm- 

 house as apple dumpling in an English one, the fruit is 

 also largely used during the winter in a dried state, being 

 prepared, either on a small domestic scale by being placed 

 in ovens after the withdrawal of the bread, or, when for 

 sale, in small drying-houses heated by a stove and fitted 

 with drawers formed of laths, with spaces between to allow 

 the air to circulate; in these the fruit is placed, skin 

 downwards, being left unpeeled, though cut in halves in 

 order to extract the stone. After being left thus for a 

 short time, the drying process is complete ; and in the 

 South a still simpler one is adopted, the fruit being merely 

 laid on boards and dried in the sun, after dipping them 

 first while whole, a basket-full at a time, for a few minutes 

 in boiling water. 



The peach was introduced into America by the early 

 settlers, somewhere about 1680, and before long was 

 grown everywhere south of 48 latitude, literally without 

 cultivation, it being only necessary to plant a stone, and 



