I lO THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 



all other stone-fruits combined, the value of the crop in 1909, as we have 

 seen, amounting to $28,781,078 while the'value of the plum was $10,299,495; 

 of the cherry, $7,231,160; of the apricot, $2,884,119; of the almond, $712,000. 

 The consumption of peaches is increasing year by year. Until recently 

 the peach has been considered a fruit of luxury, but large plantations, 

 good care, quick and safe transportation and wide distribution now provide 

 peaches for all who can afford to eat fruit. 



The profits of peach-growing are occasionally so enormous that the 

 publication of the figures is usually followed by excessive planting, with 

 consequent over-production and low prices, followed, in turn, by scarcity 

 and high prices. So, too, the peach is more at the mercy of the seasons 

 than any other standard tree-fruit and winter freezes and spring frosts 

 ruin crops in some part of the country every year and often such disasters 

 are widespread. These ups and downs, however, instead of decreasing, 

 seem to stimulate the peach-trade, probably, on the part of the grower, 

 because gambling is a universal vice; on the part of the consumer, because 

 he better appreciates peaches when the blessing is occasionally withdrawn. 



The chosen use for any choice fruit is to eat it as it comes from the 

 tree or as prepared fresh fruit for dessert. So the peach is chiefly used the 

 world over. Refreshing and delectable as any other fruit, it has another 

 quality, appreciated by those who sell as well as by those who consume — 

 it does not cloy the appetite. The insatiable longing of the great lexi- 

 cographer, Johnson, for peaches is common to all lovers of this fruit. 

 Boswell, Johnson's biographer, gives this gustatory reminiscence of his 

 famous patron: " He would eat seven or eight large peaches of a morning 

 before breakfast began, and treated them with proportionate attention 

 after dinner again, yet I have heard him protest that he never had quite 

 as much as he wished, except once, in his life." In America the greater 

 part of the crop is, no doubt, eaten out of hand but peach-pie and peaches 

 and cream, and peach-butter are national dishes, while marmalades, 

 jellies, pickles, preserves and sauces are as common to this fruit as to any 

 other. Besides the innumerable cooked products, several refreshing domes- 

 tic drinks are made from the juice of peaches, as shrub and peach-wine, or 

 it may be frozen into sherbet or ice cream. Waste peaches are used with 

 more or less success as stock for vinegar. Peaches are canned and evap- 

 orated in the United States on an enormous scale, nearly one-half the 

 crop being so utilized. 



Canned peaches. — Canning is conservation in excelsis. It is modem 



