THE PEACH. 97 



Malta or Belle de Paris, Royal Charlotte, and William's 

 Early Purple ; Clingstones^ Catharine, Heath, and Old 

 Newington. 



The following account of the modes of cultivating the 

 peach in England, whilst it shows the impediments opposed 

 by nature to the development of this fruit in that climate, 

 may prove useful to those who reside in the more northern 

 United States and British Colonies where the climate is 

 unfavorable to the perfection of this delicious fruit in the 

 open air.* In all the Southern and Middle States the 

 peach-tree flourishes in the open air, and planted in orchards, 

 attains some fifteen or twenty feet in height. The position 

 where the peach is found perhaps in the greatest perfection 

 is about the latitude of Baltimore and Washington. In 

 the State of Delaware, south of Philadelphia, thousands 

 of acres are covered with peach-trees, affording the greatest 

 abundance of fruit in the highest perfection. Baskets, 

 holding about three pecks, are commonly sold at twenty- 

 five to fifty cents. The varieties of this fruit known in 

 the United States are very numerous, and every year 

 increasing. 



Propagation. — The facility with which this is effected in 

 the United States may be judged of by the fact, that vigor- 

 ous budded trees from four to seven feet in height can be 

 obtained at the nurseries at from three to five dollars per 

 hundred. The first step is to plant the pits in November, 

 in some rich, light, or sandy soil, covering them about three 

 inches deep. They may be placed in rows four feet apart, 

 and six or eight inches from each other. Or, the pits may 

 be deposited during the autumn, in moist sand or light 



* The management required for obtaining the peach at extraordinary 

 seasons will be found laid down in the description of operatic ns connected 

 with fo rcing 



