THE CULTIVATION AND DISEASES OF THE PEACH. 71 



driving distance, and was at once used for pies or puddings, 

 or sliced for supper. Tiie culls were sold to city peddlers for 

 whatever they would bring. The other three grades were placed 

 in clean new half-bushel peach baskets, the same grade of fruit 

 all through the basket and no extra ones on top, carefully labelled 

 according to grade, and placed on the market with the guarantee 

 that they would be found perfect throughout, and we had no 

 trouble in selling them at from Si. 00 to $1.50 for No. 2, $1.G5 to 

 $2.50 for No. 1, and from $2.50 to $4.00 for extra selected, so 

 that the money piled up very fast ; and people visiting our place 

 during September went away convinced that there were " millions 

 in it," and no doubt for one night at least had dreams of perfect 

 orchards of their own with bushels of luscious fruit and heav^" 

 bank accounts. For ourselves we had the satisfaction of at last see- 

 ing our efforts rewarded, but financiall}' we have yet our money to 

 make, for this crop has just about paid the cost of the orchards to 

 this date, and now we must continue to care for them and take 

 our chances of a crop sometime in the future. We have already 

 expended a thousand dollars for fertilizer for 1888, for the trees 

 must not be neglected even if the fruit buds are all dead. We 

 are bound to grow peaches or leave New England, and we will 

 never do the latter. And I say to you, Mr. President and gentle- 

 men, plant each year a few trees of the most hardy sorts on the 

 most suitable land you have, give them the best of care, and while 

 you may not have fruit every year you will have enough to more 

 than pay for your trouble, and there is nothing like the satisfac- 

 tion of eating this delicious fruit in perfection, as borne and 

 ripened on a tree growing in the rugged New England soil. 



As for planting large orchards for marketing the fruit, what the 

 old lady said to girls about to marry will well apply here : " You 

 will be sorry if you do, and sorry if you don't." The j-ears and 

 years of weary waiting for a time when the buds will not be 

 frosted, and the continued expense and labor required to keep 

 the trees in proper condition will make you wish you had not 

 embarked in the business ; yet when the time does come that you 

 find your trees loaded down with rich red and yellow fruit — 

 every specimen a picture — then will you feel that happiness has 

 come if riches have not. Do not expect to get rich out of the 

 business ; it is risky at the best, and in the long run I think will 

 not prove as profitable as Baldwin apples ; yet if you love fruit 



