6o THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



will grow up to bearing trees on account of the roots being strong. Let 

 no kind of beasts into peach-orchards, hogs excepted, for fear of wounding 

 the trees; as the least wound will greatly injure the tree, by draining away 

 that substance which is the life thereof; although the tree may live many 

 years, the produce is not so great, neither is the fruit so good. 



" After the old stock is cut away, the third year after transplanting, 

 the sprouts or scions will grow up, all round the old stump, from four to 

 six in number; no more will come to maturity, than the old stump can sup- 

 port and nourish ; the remainder will die before ever they bear fruit. These 

 may be cut away, taking care not to wound any part of any stock, or the 

 bark. The sprouts growing all round the old stimip, when loaded with 

 fruit will bend and rest on the ground in every direction, without injuring 

 any of them, for many years, all of them being rooted in the ground, as 

 tho' they had been planted. The stocks will remain tough, and the bark 

 smooth for 2 years and upwards; if any of the sprouts or trees from the 

 old stump should happen to split off, or die, cut them away, they will be 

 supplied from the ground, by young trees, so that you will have trees from 

 the same stump for 100 years, as I believe. I now have trees, 36, 20, 10, 

 5 and down to one year old, all from the same stump. 



" The young trees coming up, after any of the old trees split ofT or die, 

 and are cut away, will bear fruit the second year; bvit this fruit will not 

 ripen so easily as the fruit on the old trees from the same stem. Three 

 years after the trees are cut ofif by the ground, they will be sufficiently 

 large and bushy, to shade the grovmd so as to prevent grass of any kind from 

 matting or binding the surface, so as to injure the trees; therefore; plough- 

 ing is useless, as well as injurious; useless, because nothing can be raised 

 in the orchard, by reason the trees will shade all the ground, or nearly 

 so; injurious, because either the roots, stocks or branches will be wounded: 

 neither is it necessary ever to manure peach-trees, as manured trees wiU 

 always produce less and worse fruit, than trees that are not manured; 

 although by manuring your peach-trees, they will grow larger, and look 

 greener and thicker in the boughs, and cause a thicker shade, yet on them 



will grow very little fruit, and that little will be of a very bad kind 



generally looking as green as the leaves, even when ripe, and later than 

 those that never have been manured." 



None of the varieties that we now grow was then cultivated. Taking 

 the sorts described in 1800 we find that four were red-fleshed; eight, yellow- 

 fleshed; thirty-four, white-fleshed; eighteen, freestones; nineteen, cling- 

 stones, and twelve nectarines. There were no flat, or Peento, peaches 

 but a sort known as Venus's Nipple was seemingly a typical beaked peach. 



In 1800, Baltimore was the best market for peaches in America and" 

 was near the Chesapeake peach-belt. We are fortunate in having a descrip- 



