278 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



years old. These trees generally yield a crop, when 

 younger ones fail. 



Father Hennepin, a religious missionary, who first de- 

 scribed the regions of Louisiana in his voyage down the 

 Mississippi, gives an account of the numerous peach-trees 

 which he observed in every direction in that part of Ame- 

 rica ; and as the latitude is the same as that part of Asia, 

 of which these trees are the natural production, there can 

 be no doubt but they are indigenous to Louisiana as well 

 as to Persia, although in many parts of America the 

 peach is regarded as a foreign fruit, it having been intro- 

 duced from Europe before Louisiana had been explored. 



This fruit is now cultivated with such success in some 

 parts of North America, that it is not uncommon to see 

 orchards containing one thousand standard peach-trees, 

 which are so productive, that the fruit is used to fatten 

 swine : from a single orchard have been procured, after the 

 pulp is fermented and distilled, one hundred barrels of 

 peach brandy. 



Peaches grow so rapidly in New South Wales, that if 

 a stone is set, in three years an abundant crop is pro- 

 duced. 



Peaches are forced with considerable success. These, 

 of necessity, must bear a high price in the market, so long 

 as glass continues an object of heavy taxation. The ex- 

 pense of fuel, it appears, will not be so excessive, since 

 the heating of flues by steam promises to answer. 



Mr. Kirk, of Old Brompton, has lately introduced an 

 entire new variety of the peach, which he obtained from 

 Java. It was ripened in the summer of 1820, by John 

 Braddick, Esq. of Thames Ditton, and it proves to be the 

 Chinese Flat Peach. The fruit is of a singular form, 

 being quite flat, and the eye large, and bearing the ap- 

 pearance of the crown of a medlar, of a yellow colour, 

 speckled with red on the part exposed to the sun, and 



