No. 129.J 503 



bor of procuring and applying it, the cost of planting a young 

 orchard to supply the place of the old one, the time it would be 

 before this began to produce so as to be profitable, how many 

 years would be lost, by this extra effort of the old one to produce 

 every year, as it would be pretty difficult to tell the year or time 

 they would die — whether in ten, fifteen, or twenty years. These 

 philosophical or scientific experiments in agriculture, that re- 

 quire so much time, cannot be easily made with any accuracy. 

 In ten or fifteen years a new system may be discovered and con- 

 sidered a great improvement on the present one in raising fruit 

 and other agricultural products. Those of the present day may 

 be cast "aside as visionary and of little worth, compared with 

 what science and progress may discover hereafter. Even those 

 who by their superior acuteness and diligence brought them into 

 notice and use, would almost blush at their own short-sighted- 

 ness, in not seeing as far into principle and improvements as 

 those who came a few years after them. The regular subject of 

 the day being the apple, strictly, the debates should have been 

 confined to this. It has been joined, though, with the peach, 

 somewhat difierent in character and principle, and facts stated, 

 in regard to the last fruit, which do not meet my views. I must 

 therefore notice some of these facts. It has been said the peach 

 tree requires a very rich soil and liberal pruning, more or less 

 every year. The peach is a native of a liot, dry climate, the 

 sandy plains of Persia and the Persian Gulf, deserts of Arabia, 

 some parts of Egypt. It is said they will not grow on the banks 

 of the Nile — it is too rich for them — made so by the annual inun- 

 dations of this river. When brought north in Europe or Ameri- 

 ca they thrive best, and live much longer on a light sandy soil, 

 and very little manure. The thrift of the peach in our southern 

 states, and the great age to which they generally live there, 

 proves this. One object in not pruning much, is to let them 

 have the benefit of all their leaves and branches to protect the 

 fruit'and tree generally from our hot sun, which injures both. 

 In England, and countries far north, they prune more ; they 

 want the sun on their fruit ; it matures better. A rich soil makes 

 the tree grow up rank and rapid, full of juices, its sap vessels 

 distended and surcharged with sap. These often burst, and the 

 regular flow of the^sap up and down, in the natural channels is 



