THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 39 



" The Almond Peach, so called, because the kemell of the stone is 

 sweete, like the Almond, and the fruit also somewhat pointed like the 

 Almond in the huske; it is early ripe, and like the Newington Peach, but 

 lesser. 



" The Man Peach is of two sorts, the one longer then the other, both 

 of them are good Peaches, but the shorter is the better rellished. 



" The Cherr}^ Peach is a small Peach, but well tasted. 



" The Nutmeg Peach is of two sorts, one that will be hard when it is 

 ripe, and eateth not so pleasantly as the other, which will bee soft and 

 meUow; they are both small Peaches, having ver\' little or no resemblance 

 at all to a Nutmeg, except in being a little longer than round, and are early 

 ripe." 



" Many other sorts of Peaches there are, whereunto wee can give no 

 especial name; and therefore I passe them over in silence." 



Agriculture seems to have received a great impetus in England about 

 the middle of the Seventeenth Century, possibly with the beginning of 

 Cromwell's Protectorate in 1653. Toward the end of the centtiry the 

 momentum began to carry pomology with it, the most apparent results 

 of the movement at this distance, as it affects the peach, being a great 

 output of new varieties and of fruit-books in which the new offerings were 

 described. From this time the progress of peach-culture in England 

 assumed so great proportions that space does not permit following it 

 further in this brief account — a task unnecessary, too, for the pomological 

 works of Lawrence, Switzer, Langley, Brookshaw, Miller, Rea, Hitt, 

 Abercrombie and Forsyth, to select the most prominent names, cover the 

 century well and are still accessible in large libraries. Moreover, by this 

 time the peach was well established in America and we must take up its 

 history there. 



THE PEACH IX .\MERIC.\ 



One of the first fruits of the heroic age of Spanish discovery in America 

 was the naturalization in the New World of animals and plants which the 

 discoverers brought with them. Most notable of these are the wild horses 

 of the western plains and the Indian peaches of southern forests. Long 

 before the English, Dutch, French or Swedes planted colonies in America, 

 peaches, introduced by Spaniards, were common property of the Indians 

 in southeastern and southwestern America. The Spaniards came to the 

 New World to conquer and brought swords more often than fruits, but a 

 cheery note in the long dirge of human woes suffered by the Aztecs is found 

 in the rapid dissemination of the peach, among other domesticated plants. 



