AND ITS DISEASE. 93 



years the farmers of the six eastern counties of the 

 State, Lancaster, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, 

 Bucks and Berks, within a few hours each of the 

 market, will be found relieving us from our de- 

 pendence on Delaware and Maryland, our two 

 two neighboring States, which have enjoyed a mo- 

 nopoly of our city markets for the last fifty years. 

 The result of Mr. Butter's peach growing in 

 Pennsylvania and Maryland, on a large scale for 

 a series of years the first in a district diseased 

 with the yellows, and the other in a healthy location 

 not in any way affected with the disease is infor- 

 mation that is vastly to the advantage of Pennsyl- 

 vania in quantity and quality of fruit. The un- 

 certainty of the peach crop is increased as we 

 leave Pennsylvania and proceed South, even into 

 Georgia and Florida. Again, the fruit shipped 

 from Maryland, he said, is gathered in an imma- 

 ture state, quite hard, and before it has acquired 

 that sweet saccharine taste which is only found in 

 a ripe peach. This immature condition is re- 

 quired for peaches handled so frequently and 

 roughly in their long transportation. They ripen 

 on their way to market and never attain the rich, 

 luscious taste of a fully matured peach. The peach 

 is perishable at maturity and requires a near mar- 

 ket and careful handling. As to -the profits in 

 peach growing between the North and South a 

 distance of one hundred and fifty miles there is 

 no approximate comparison, Pennsylvania having 



