590 THE PEACH 



country, and the numerous crops it produces, almost without 

 care, have led to a carelessness of cultivation which has greatly 

 enfeebled the stock in the eastern half of the Union, and, as we 

 shall presently show, has, in many places, produced a disease 

 peculiar to this country. This renders it necessary to give some 

 additional care and attention to the cultivation of the peach ; and 

 with very trifling care, this delicious fruit may be produced in 

 great abundance for many successive years. 



USES. Certainly no one expects us to write the praises of the 

 peach as the most delicious of fruits. " To gild refined gold" 

 would be a task quite as necessary, and if any one doubts the 

 precise rank which the peach should take among the different 

 fruits of even that cornucopian month September and wishes 

 to convince us of the higher flavour of a Seckel or a Belle Lucra- 

 tive pear, we will promise to stop his mouth and his argument 

 with a sunny-cheeked and melting " George the Fourth," or 

 luscious, " Rareripe !" No man who lives under a warm sun 

 will hesitate about giving a due share of his garden to peaches, if 

 he have no orchard; and even he who lives north of the best In- 

 dian corn limits, ought to venture on a small line of espalier, for 

 the sake of the peach. In pies and pastry, and for various 

 kinds of preserving, the peach is everywhere highly esteemed. 

 At the south and west, where peaches are not easily carried to 

 market, a considerable quantity of peach brandy is annually 

 distilled from them, but we believe by no means so much as 

 formerly. Hogs are fattened, in such districts, on the refuse of 

 the orchard and distillery. 



In Western New-York, and indeed in most parts of the coun- 

 try where peaches are largely cultivated, the fruit is dried, and 

 in this state sent to market in very large quantities. The dry- 

 ing is performed, on a small scale, in spent ovens ; on a large 

 scale, in a small drying house heated by a stove, and fitted up 

 with ventilated drawers. These drawers, the bottoms of which 

 are formed of laths, or narrow strips sufficiently open to allow 

 the air to circulate through them, are filled with peaches in halves. 

 They are cut in two without being peeled, the stones taken out, 

 and the two halves placed in a single layer with the skin down- 

 ward. In a short time the heat of the drying house will com- 

 plete the drying, and the drawers are then ready for a second 

 filling. Farther south they are spread upon boards or frames, 

 and dried in the sun merely ; but usually with the previous pre- 

 paration of dipping the peaches (in baskets) for a few minutes 

 in boiling water before halving them. 



The leaf of the peach, bruised in water and distilled, gives the 

 peach water, so much esteemed by many for flavouring articles 

 of delicate cookery ; and steeped in brandy or spirits, they com- 

 municate to it the flavour of Noyeau. Indeed a . very good 

 imitation of the celebrated Noyeau is made in this way, by using 



