16 PEACH CULTUEE. 



already that they produce peaches of very large size, and 

 two, at least, of rare shape, — the Chinese Flat, aud Crooked 

 Peach. With this beginning, we will not bo surprised at- 

 Btill more curious developments. The curiosity, ingenuity, 

 and enterprise of our countrymen will soon discover 

 ■whatever may be known. 



It is to our credit that the United States is the only 

 country in the world that, either in ancient or modern ,* 

 times, has produced peaches in sufficient quantities to al- 

 low them to become a common m.irketable commodity ; 

 BO cheap that tlie poor, as well as tlie rich, may regale, 

 themselves and their families with one of the most whole- 

 some and delicious of fruits at a very small eipense, and 

 •with every prospect that they \\ill still be more abund- 

 ant and cheap. While these pages are being written, 

 peaches are selling in the New York market for thirty- 

 five and seventy-five cents a basket ; and the receipts 

 vary from fifty to one hundred and sixty thousand bas- 

 kets per day. 



While the Peach can be successfully cultivated in the 

 United States, out-of-doors, anywhere south of 42° Nortli 

 latitude, and under an altitude of nine thousand feet, yet 

 it is not a sure crop north of 40°. But south, of this, even 

 to Florida and Texas, it flourishes with the greatest luxu- 

 riance. Still there are some localities and sections that,- 

 owing to their peculiar topography and soil, are much 

 better suited to this fruit than others. First amongst 

 these stands the Delaware Peninsula, embracing the State.- 

 Hm Delaware, and the eastern shore of Maryland and Vir-*- 

 ginia, a territory of about six thousand square miles. 

 Within these limits it is believed more peaches are pro- 

 duced than in any other of the same extent anywhere. 

 The centre of this peach-producing region is Kent County, 

 Delaware, which produces more peaches, and of better 

 quality, than any other territory of the same size in the 

 World, 



