INXEODtJCTtOK. 23 



to them, whereby the culture might be made profitable. 

 When these are afforded, it will no doubt increase. 



Along the Atlantic slope, from Sandy Hook to Cape 

 Sable, there is scarcely a district in which the Peach does 

 not flourish. 



Of lHew Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, we have 

 already spoken. The remaining Atlantic States, without 

 exception, produce peaches, and of great excellence. But 

 the culture has languished from the same cause, but not 

 to the same degree, as that operating in Arkansas and 

 Texas, the want of a convenient market and cheap trans- 

 portation. They have no great cities at hand, with their 

 swarming millions, to consume their surplus ; hence 

 the cultivation has been confined to a sufficiency for 

 home use. 



But the recent and rapid extension of railroad facilities 

 has given a new impetus to this branch of agriculture; 

 and within 'the last three years, it is believed at least two 

 hundred thousand trees have been planted on the Atlantic 

 slope south of Maryland. Most of these, perhaps four- 

 fifths, have been planted in Virginia and North Carolina. 



In Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, they grow luxuri- 

 antly, but they have been overshadowed by other interests. 



Florida has recently been giving more attention to 

 peaches, and we saw some fine-looking but small-sized 

 ones in the Philadelphia market late in April, 1887. 



Virginia may be regarded as the mother of Peaches as 

 well as of Presidents, for, for more than half a century, 

 she was the principal peach grower of the Union; and 

 while Pennsylvania and New Jersey were cultivating a 

 few trees in fence rows and gardens, she had large and 

 flourishing orchards, numbering thousands of trees. The 

 seed was brought from England by the early settlers, and 

 found here a much more congenial soil and clime than in 

 the mother country. Indeed, it is worthy of remark, that 

 almost every variety brought from England does better 



