FACT NUMBER THREE. 49 



past? Who honors moral worth or commercial integrity as 

 both were once honored ? Where is the sanctity of a prom- 

 ise, the steadfast confiding, the holy keeping, which were 

 once our honest boast,— onr glory at home and our passport 

 abroad ? Into what profession, avocation, or calling, has not 

 bold, open-day cheat, blink-eyed duplicity, and unblushing 

 fraud, dexterously crept, as if they were all so many white 

 winged angels nestling in the bosom of Eve-like innocence ! 

 Even in the cultivation and sale of the humble plant whose 

 name adorns the heading of this chapter, — the generous 

 fruit-giving Peach Tree, the most villainous deceptions and 

 coolly contrived frauds, have just been detected, and in vari- 

 ous quarters they now exhibit strong proofs of extensive 

 prevalence and long standing. Our nurserymen, from the 

 mass of whom however, we are happy in being able to make 

 some worthy exceptions, have taken the responsibility of 

 carrying on, and carrying out a series of preconcerted knave- 

 ries which merit the severest reprehension, — the rod of just 

 retribution. But as this subject will be briefly stated in 

 another place, we now waive further comment, and proceed 

 forthwith to the consideration of the cure of the Peach Tree 

 and the preservation of its fruit. And 



1st. The choice of ground, &c. In the planting out of 

 the nursery seed or peach-pitt, as it is called, care should be 

 taken that the seeds are strewed along in the drill or furrow 

 about four inches apart. This distance affords fair room to 

 dress out the plant, and it particularly favors an early inocu- 

 lation, say the first Summer after planting the seed ; this too, 

 by consequence, will greatly favor an early transplanting to 



7 



