CHAPTER V 

 THE PEACH. 



The excellence and value of this fruit is universally acknowleged. It is unnecessary to 

 compare a good peach with a good pear ; they are so different in kind and the qualities so 

 unlike that comparison fails ; we may as well compare a pudding with a pie. Both fruits 

 add materially to our enjoyments, and extend the limits of healthful luxuries. The idea 

 that effeminacy is somehow or other connected with such luxuries should not be enter- 

 tained. The cultivation of these fruits belongs to a species of refined civilization which is 

 incompatible with the early and lower grades of advancement : it belongs to the same 

 grade of civilization as the culture of wheat. The savage may plant his corn and dry his 

 roots, but it only consists in acts but little higher than those performed by the rodents of the 

 forest, who come in and divide with him a share of these vegetable products. The im- 

 provement of kinds, by the institution of a system of means, requires an advance in a 

 knowledge of the nature of the vital forces. It is true there may exist a fund of practical 

 information derived from observation and the experience of many generations, without a re- 

 markable advancement in the higher arts, as the application of steam or electro-magnetism, 

 as a moving power. The Chinese excel in the production of varieties ; they have advanced 

 far on this road of civilization, while in many other directions they remain in the back 

 ground. The cultivation of the peach is not difficult. A sunny warm climate, however, 

 favors a perfect development of its superior qualities. In the damper and cooler atmo- 

 spheres, protection and shelter under walls compensate in part for deficient temperature 

 and a want of bright and sunny atmosphere. Tiiis fact is illustrated by the artificial con- 

 ditions required in the cultivation of the peach in England. 



The peach tree is easily grown and easily propagated, but to secure good, or at least supe- 

 perior fruit requires a knowledge of the peculiar characters of the species, and skill in 

 rearing the tree, embracing a knowledge of the means of imparting the requisite amount 

 of vigor which perfect fruits demand. 



Those who have not turned their attention to fruit culture, arc liable to fall into neglect 

 in treating this and other trees. The idea that trees can take care of themselves when 

 planted in orchards, that there can be no lack of nutriment, does not seem to have been 

 suspected ; and hence when it grows slowly, lacks vigor and bears an inferior fruit, the 



