22 THE PEACH 



but on a smaller scale. And I may here repeat, 

 that the accumulated evidence of all this period is 

 fully and most overwhelmingly confirmatory of the 

 declaration with which I set out. I was brought 

 up from early boyhood in the apple and peach or- 

 chards of Delaware, and took my first lessons in 

 grafting from an old almanac, and a knowledge of 

 inoculating trees under the instruction of a good 

 old neighboring Methodist exhorter. 



Through these instrumentalities I became some- 

 thing of a pomologist of that early day of a large 

 country and small towns and acquired a neigh- 

 borhood reputation in the profession, but in a short 

 time domestic changes took place, and I was called 

 to other employments, carrying with me into Penn- 

 sylvania my taste and love for fruit culture, and 

 particularly for my early favorite fruit, the Peach. 



Some years after my location in West Chester, 

 Pa., I made purchase of a farm on the lt Mica Slate 

 Ridge," some two and one-half miles north of the 

 town. This ridge was known as the " Barrens," 

 and the purchase was what, at this day, would be 

 called a worn out-farm, but it was what I consid- 

 ered a miserably neglected one. Most of the farm 

 land was out in " commons," and a range for road 

 stock, under a crop of briars, and poverty grass. 



The prospect was gloomy enough for making out 

 of it anything by ordinary farming, unless by a 

 heavy out-lay in fertilizers, and the aid of a doubt- 

 ful tenant. It occurred to me, as it was near West 



