314 NORFOLK SOOiKTY. 



The committee also recommend the following gratuities : — 



To Jason Reed, of Milton, - - - $3 00 



To Luther Porter, of Stoughton, - - 2 00 



In closing this report, the committee beg leave to remark, 

 that although the peach tree is not indigenous to our soil and 

 climate, yet it was introduced early into the country, and has 

 been successfully cultivated in different sections of the Union. 

 The peach tree has been considered as of short duration, but 

 its natural life, when grown in congenial soil and climate, and 

 not affected by the worm or disease, continues to thirty or forty 

 years ; and instances are not rare, of still greater longevity. In 

 the Middle States, where the peach is cultivated extensively 

 for the market, the orchards are either renewed, or the location 

 changed, as often as once in six or eight years. 



In our latitude, the fruit buds are often injured by the late 

 frosts of spring, or the severe changes from warm to extreme 

 cold weather in the autumn. These circumstances have pre- 

 vented the extensive cultivation, in our region, of this delicious 

 fruit. Experience, however, has shown, that with the selection 

 of proper soil, location and varieties, and judicious ripening of 

 the wood, the peach may be cultivated in many parts of New 

 England, particularly in our county, with great success. When 

 we compare the obstacles which exist in Massachusetts, with 

 those which afflict the cultivator of this fruit in New Jersey 

 and Delaware, we shall find that not unfrequently the crop is 

 injured or destroyed there, by the same causes which prevail 

 here, — early or late frosts. 



The committee are gratified to learn by their investigations, 

 that the opinions here advanced are sustained by the experience 

 of many who have recently entered upon the cultivation of the 

 peach for the market, and that its culture with us has already 

 become of no inconsiderable consequence, either as it regards 

 extent or profit. 



When we consider our proximity to a large market — the im- 

 mense demand for this fruit, at the appropriate season — the 

 superior quality of that which is grown here, above that 

 brought from the south — that it can be grown on light soils, 



