PEACH-TREE. 2'6'S 
French. In the vicinity of Boston, Salem, New York, Philadelphia, and other 
populous cities of the United States, the peach is reared against walls and in hot- 
houses, by numerous opulent citizens, and fruit of a large size and fine quality 
is produced. In some other parts of the American continent, it also readily 
grows, and in great abundance. Sir Francis Head, in his "Rough Notes," 
speaks in raptures of the beauty and luxuriance of this fruit, which was scat- 
tered over the corn-fields in the neighbourhood of Mendoza, on the east side of 
the Andes ; and the same traveller noticed dried peaches used as an article of 
food on the more elevated parts of those mountains, to which they must have 
been carried from the plains below. On the banks of Rio de la Plata, from 
Montevideo to Buenos Ayres, we have seen peach-trees growing spontaneously, 
in the greatest perfection, and. in such abundance as to form a considerable por- 
tion of the fuel of the provinces in which they grew. The fruit there is of a fine 
quality, large quantities of which are annually dried for domestic use, and the 
chief part of the remainder is consumed by cattle, or is suffered to decay upon 
the ground. 
Soil and Situation. A sandy soil, rather poor than rich, appears to be the 
most favourable to the growth of good peaches ; but land of moderate fertility 
produces the most abundant crops. This tree is also known to prosper on clayey, 
and calcareous loams, as well as on deep alluvial deposits. On very fertile soils, 
or those which have been made so by high manuring, it grows larger, and is more 
flourishing ; but its fruit is of an inferior kind, often appearing as green as the 
leaves, even when ripe, and is much later than that grown on poorer soils. This 
defect, however, can be remedied in a measure, by depriving the tree of a portion 
of its foliage, after the fruit is set ; but this practice is believed to shorten the life 
of the tree. In the middle and southern states of the union, elevated grounds, in 
the vicinity of water, are considered as the best for peach-trees, and the northern 
sides of hills as the most desirable sites ; for they retard their vegetation and pre- 
vent the destructive effects of late vernal frosts ; but a belt of forest is desirable 
on the north, to break off the cold winds. In corroboration of these views, we 
can aver from good authority, that the elevated tracts, not only lying along the 
shores of the Atlantic and the large bays adjacent thereto, but those on the bor- 
ders of our western waters, are more favourable to the production of good peaches, 
than districts more inland. It has also been observed that peach-trees flourish 
in hedge- rows, and in most other places where their trunks are shaded, which 
preserves them from the effects of sudden transitions from heat to cold, and from 
cold to heat. 
Propagation and Management. The peach-tree may be propagated from 
seeds, by grafting, or inoculation. The former mode is considered more certain, 
as to quickness of growth, and earlier profit, as well as economy, though it does 
not insure identity of species, except in a few cases ; for it rarely occurs that the 
seeds of pomiferous fruits perpetuate the same characters and qualities. It 
appears, however, that the stones of the variety of peach, called " Eastburn's 
Choice," which originated at Philadelphia about seventeen years ago, produce 
fruit possessing the same properties as those of the parent tree. In Delaware, 
where the peach arrives at a high degree of perfection, the trees are often 
raised from the stone, without either grafting or budding. The mode which 
has been adopted there for the last century, and which is applicable to this spe- 
cies of culture in the middle and southern states generally, is given at length, in 
.the "Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society for promoting Agriculture;" and in 
substance is as follows : The stones are usually cracked, with the kernels 
sometimes taken out, and planted two together, in hills with Indian corn, at 
about twenty or twenty-five feet apart, in squares. The corn is cultivated in 
the usual way, and the young trees grow with the crop, to a height of three or 
30 
