16 PEACH CULTURE. 



already that they produce peaches of very large size, and 

 two, at least, of rare shape, the Chinese Flat, and Crooked 

 Peach. With this beginning, we will not be surprised at 

 still more curious developments. The curiosity, ingenuity, 

 and enterprise of our countrymen will soon discover 

 whatever may be known. 



It is to our credit that the United States is the only 

 country in the world that, either in ancient or modern 

 times, has produced peaches in sufficient quantities to al- 

 low them to become a common marketable commodity ; 

 so cheap that the poor, as well as the rich, may regale 

 themselves and their families with one of the most whole- 

 some and delicious of fruits at a very small expense, and 

 with every prospect that they will still be more abund- 

 ant and cheap. While these pages are being written, 

 peaches are selling in the New York market for thirty- 

 five and seventy-five cents a basket ; and the receipts 

 vary from fifty to one hundred and sixty thousand bas- 

 kets per day. 



While the Peach can be successfully cultivated in the 

 United States, out-of-doors, anywhere south of 42 North 

 latitude, and under an altitude of nine thousand feet, yet 

 it is not a sure crop north of 40. But south of this, even 

 to Florida and Texas, it flourishes with the greatest luxu- 

 riance. Still there are some localities and sections that, 

 owing to their peculiar topography and soil, are much 

 better suited to this fruit than others. First amongst 

 these stands the Delaware Peninsula, embracing the State 

 of Delaware, and the eastern shore of Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia, a territory of about six thousand square miles. 

 Within, these limits it is believed more peaches are pro- 

 duced than in any other of the same extent anywhere. 

 The centre of this peach-producing region is Kent County, 

 Delaware, which produces more peaches, and of better 

 quality, than any other territory of the same size in the 

 World. 



