PEACH. 209 



large. If milk is plenty, boil them in milk and water. 

 They are served with boiled dishes, simply boiled ; with roasts 

 they are sliced and fried in sweet lard or butter, but must 

 first be boiled. They are sweetest in spring, after being 

 wintered in the ground. 



PASTRY. To one pound and a quarter of flour add a 

 quarter of a pound of nice lard, rubbing it well into your 

 flour ; add water till it is stiff enough to put on your paste- 

 board, allowing it still to be as soft as it can be worked. 

 Sift flour over your board, and lay the paste on. Have 

 ready a pound of butter, from which the salt and buttermilk 

 have been worked and pressed out ; put the butter in pieces 

 all over your paste, dust over a little flour, fold up your paste, 

 and roll it out. Again put bits of butter all over the surface 

 of the paste, then flour and roll it in as before, and proceed 

 in this way till your butter is all worked into the paste. 



PEACH (Amygdalus Persica). This fruit is said to be 

 grown in larger quantities in the United States than in any 

 other country in the world ; it is principally, however, in the 

 Middle, Western, and Southern States that it is success- 

 fully cultivated. In the Eastern States it is raised only with 

 great care, and constantly deteriorates in quality. The 

 health and duration of peach-orchards depend upon the 

 care with which the seed has been selected, which, to pro- 

 duce healthy seedlings, should be taken from districts Tvhere 

 the Yellows is not prevalent, upon the nature of the soil, and 

 the care with which over-luxuriance is checked by pruning 

 the extremities of the trees. 



" The very best soil," says Downing, " for the peach, is a 



rich, deep sandy loam ; next to this, a strong, mellow loam ; 



then a light, thin, sandy soil ; and the poorest is a heavy, 



compact clay soil. In ordinary cases, the duration of peach- 



18* 



