No. 3. Cultivation of the Peach. — Ripe Fruit and Dysentery. 



77 



doses. No matter if it kills a few dogs too; 

 they have killed more sheep for me than 

 ever wolves did. 



Don't forget to shut up ^-our own bucks 

 from July 1st to November 15th, and make 

 wethers of every other man's that run at 

 large. And above all, don't forget to get 

 the sheep. And don't forget the good ad- 

 vice of your old friend. Solon Robinson. 



Lake C. H., la. July, 1844. 



Cultivation of the Peach. 



To the Cincinnati Hurficultural Society : — 



Gentlemen, — I have never yet met with 

 a person who could answer me tliis question: 

 "Will the pit of the budded peach produce 

 the same fruit as the bud, or as the stock, 

 or a mixture of the two?" That the pit of 

 a seedlmg peach will produce its kind, is 

 well known, as the Healh Cling has been 

 cultivated exclusively from the pit in Vir- 

 ginia and Kentucky, for the last fifty years. 

 It is a subject of great interest to those who 

 raise peaches for their own use only, as it 

 will enable them to raise their own trees, of 

 the finest fruit, with little trouble, and no 

 expense. I have never found the subject 

 referred to in any Horticultural work. This 

 is most singular, as the peach is constantly 

 raised from the pit, without budding, and 

 will bear in three years. I have never 

 fairly tested the question, but my experience 

 led me to believe that the budded pit pro- 

 duced the same fruit as the original stock. 

 Twenty-five years since I raised as many as 

 500 or 1000 trees yearly for budding, and 

 the pits were pickecf up in the garden, where 

 I had none but fine fruit, and almost exclu- 

 sively such as I got for budded trees. From 

 thirty to fifty trees would yeaily lose the 

 bud, and were allowed to produce their own 

 fruit. The fruit, except in a single instance, 

 was small and worthless. Rlany years 

 since, I saw Mr. Dennis Kelly buying a 

 peck of fine large cling peaches, and he in- 

 formed me his sole object was to plant the 

 pits. A few years thereafter, he informed 

 me that all the trees proved to be small free 

 stones. But I was not yet satisfied on the 

 subject; and three years since I planted 

 twenty pits, of a fine large yellow free 

 stone, from a tree sent me from the east. 

 One only grew, and it this season bore me 

 fruit of the same kind. But a single tree 

 is not a fair test, and the more so, as it may 

 have been produced from a chance pit in 

 the garden, and not from one planted. I 

 bring forward the subject at this time, with 

 the hope that some of our horticulturists 

 will plant a number of pits of a known 

 budded variety. I should prefer planting 



the pits as soon as gathered, and not more 

 than one-eighth of an inch under the sur- 

 face. Pits planted deep, seldom come up. 

 They may for certainty be planted in a 

 clump, and transplanted as soon as they ve- 

 getate, or as soon as they are in leaf. I 

 know of no experiment so easily made, that 

 would be of greater public utility, and it is 

 singular that the question was not placed 

 beyond doubt at an early period. I send an 

 Oldmixon free stone peach; this is I believe 

 a peach that has been cultivated near two 

 hundred years. Also a seedling free stone 

 peach, raised in the interior of Kentucky, 

 and sent to me three years since, under the 

 name of Evelina free stone : I deem it one 

 of the best peaches of the season. The 

 present season has not been favourable to 

 it, and those sent are not a fair sample of 

 what it is in favourable years. The Old- 

 mixon is a favourable sample, and one of 

 the best fruits of the season, and by com- 

 paring the Evelina with it, its quality can 

 be ascertained. I also send a Bartlet pear — 

 Williams' Bon-cretien. This pear is of 

 good quality, and valuable for its size, but 

 will not bear a comparison with the Wash- 

 ington, or Doyenne, that ripens at the same 

 time. N. Longworth. 



August 25th, 1844. 



Ripe F^uit and Dysentery. — There is 

 a pernicious prejudice with which people 

 are too generally imbued — that fruits are 

 injurious in the dysentery — that ihey pro- 

 duce and increase it. There is not, perhaps, 

 a more false prejudice. Bad fruit, and that 

 which is imperfectly ripened, may occasion 

 colics, and sometimes diarrhoea, but never 

 epidemic dysentery. Ripe fruits of all kinds, 

 especially in the summer, are the true pre- 

 servatives against this malady. The great- 

 est injury they can do, is in dissolving the 

 humors, and particularly the bile, of which 

 they are the true solvents, and occasion a 

 diarrhoea. But even this diarrhoea is a pro- 

 tection against the dysentery. Whenever 

 the dysentery has prevailed, I have eaten 

 less animal food and more fruit, and have 

 never had the slightest attack. I have seen 

 eleven patients in one house; nine were obe- 

 dient to the direction given, and ate fruit — 

 they recovered. The grandmother, and a 

 child she was most partial to, died. She 

 prescribed for the child burnt hraiuty and 

 oil, powerful aromatxs, and forbade the use 

 of fruit. She followed the same course her- 

 self, and met the like fate. A minister at- 

 tacked with dysentery, ate three pounds of 

 red currants between 7 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing and 9 in the evening — next day he was 

 entirely cured. — Tissot. 



