THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK 6 1 



tion of peach-growing around Baltimore at about that time. Richard 

 Parkinson, an English farmer and agricultural writer, came to America 

 to rent one of George Washington's farms in 1798. The two could not 

 agree and Parkinson rented a farm near Baltimore on which was a peach- 

 orchard. He published an account of his experiences in two very readable 

 volumes and from this work we quote in part the story of his peach-orchard. 

 Perhaps allowances should be made, for Parkinson seems to have been 

 soured by failure and some of his expressions are such as might be expected 

 from an opinionated Englishman undergoing new experiences in America 

 just after the Revolution. Parkinson says: ^ 



" It would astonish a stranger to see the quantity of fruit in these 

 parts, which makes the country to look beautiful twice a-year, when the 

 trees are in blossom, and when the fruit is on the trees ripe. But the fruit 

 is chiefly for the use of hogs and can be applied to no better purpose. 



" On my farm at Orange-Hill, only three miles from Baltimore, the 

 last year I was there, I sold all my peaches to two men at four pence per 

 peck, and let them have a cart and a horse to take them into the city to 

 sell, knowing I had only made four pence per peck on the average the year 

 before, and gathered them myself. These men agreed to pick them, and 

 feed the horse in town at their expence. It was the opinion of every one 

 that they had got a great bargain, and many others wished they had had 

 it. They picked about one-half of them, and carried them to Baltimore: 

 but, alas! they gave up the business, saying they could not make wages, 

 although they at first had said that they would certainly take every peach, 

 intending, if the market shotild not suit, to carry them to the stills, &c. 

 I was in hopes all this exertion would make this bargain successful, as four 

 pence per peck would pay much better than to give them to hogs, as I have 

 no knowledge of what number a hog will eat. Seeing this scheme frustrated, 

 and thinking it a sin and a shame to see such a number of fine peaches 

 rot on the ground, I mounted my horse and rode to the stills, as there were 

 many small ones within three or four miles of me in the country. They 

 have been erected for this use; but many of them are never used after the 

 first year; and I am of the opinion that they will not pay expences. The 

 men at the stills were civil enough; they offered to lend me the still, and 

 let me find a man to work it, &c. or they would work it for me; but, from 

 every information I could obtain, I found that my peaches would not more 

 than pay the carriage to the stills and hardly that; and after selling them 

 to the owners of the stills, they would not give me so much for my fruit, 

 as would pay me for my trouble; nor will peaches pay the farmer, to be given 

 to the hogs, if they be not so situated that the hogs can run where they are; 

 and that happened not to be my case. 



• Parkinson i4 Tour in America i:2i2-2ig. 1805. 



