1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



385 



THE MAMMOTH PEACH. 



We have never yet found a person who did not 

 like the peach. It is a universal favorite, and, 

 fortunately, is, at the same time, a healthful and 

 nutritious fruit. It is not a native of our country, 

 nor was it introduced here until long after some 

 of the towns in the vicinity of Boston were set- 

 tled. It is a native of both Persia and China, and 

 has been raised in New England now about two 

 hundred years. 



For many years, our climate, both in New Eng- 

 land and the Middle States, seemed admirably 

 adapted to the peach, and larger quantities of it 

 •were raised than were probably ever produced 

 any where else. Delicious as they were, they be- 

 came so common that all our people either had 

 access to them on their own grounds, or they 

 were so cheap as to be within their limited means 

 to purchase. Acres, by hundreds, were planted 

 with them in the Middle States, so that not only 

 their own large cities were bountifully supplied, 

 but those of the North also, in the most liberal 

 manner. Indeed, they were not only eaten freely 

 during the season of their ripening, but were pre- 

 served in large quantities, and became one of the 



most common and delicious condiments of the ta- 

 ble. The quince seemed to be supplanted by 

 them, and although used in some degree, lost that 

 place of pre-eminence, as a preserve, which it had 

 long sustained. 



For several years past, the peach tree has been 

 undergoing a gradual process of decay, and no 

 art of the chemist, or skill of the gardener, has 

 been able to arrest it. A disease, known as 

 "The Yellows,^' has cut off thousands of acres in 

 the Middle States. The same disease has also 

 been prevalent in New England, and although its 

 power to destroy, as in the States farther South, 

 has not been so rapid, it has at last proved equally 

 fatal. Five years ago, there were many flourishing 

 peach-orchards in New England; now we are not 

 aware that there is one ! 



There were many varieties of the peach, pos- 

 sessing various merits. They ripened, also, at 

 different times in the course of several weeks be- 

 tween the last of July and the last of October. 

 Some of them grew into a magnificent size, as is 

 represented by the illustration which we give 

 above. This peach was raised in the grounds of 



