18 AGRICULTURAL EXPLORATIONS IN THE ORCHARDS OF CHIN \. 



being the name of a village where the orchards are located. 

 These peaches grow to a large size, often weighing over 1 pound 

 apiece, and are of a soft, pale-yellowish color externally, with a slight 

 blush on one side. The meat is white except near the stone, where it 

 is slightly red. The fruit is a clingstone with a very large, pointed 

 stone. * The skin is very downy. The fruit ripens in the early and 

 middle part of October and has an excellent flavor, being sweet and 

 aromatic. It possesses extraordinary keeping and shipping quali- 

 ties, keeping until February if wrapped in soft tissue paper. Its 

 shipping qualities are such that it is carried in baskets, slung on poles 

 across the shoulders of coolies, from Feitcheng to Peking, a journey 

 of eight days on foot. So famous is this peach that it is sent every 

 year as a tribute or present to the imperial court at Peking; and even 

 right on the spot where this fruit grows the most perfect specimens 

 retail at from 10 to 15 cents apiece in Mexican money, a price which 

 is about two-thirds that of the average daily wages of the Chinese 

 field laborer. 



Another fine variety of peach grows near Hsinchow, south of Pau- 

 tingfu, in the Chihli Province. The writer has seen specimens of this 

 peach in Tientsin that were fully as large as good-sized navel oranges. 

 They are of a pale, whitish-green color, with almost no blush, and 

 very juicy and sweet, though not aromatic like the Fei peach. Thej 

 are clingstones, the seed being medium large. They are not very 

 downy, and ripen toward the end of October. They are exported to 

 all the large cities of northern China, and can rarely be purchased in 

 the open markets, as they are apparently nearly always supplied to 

 private customers. 



Another variety, found near Shanghai, is the "Tsu mau tau," a 

 large fruit with whitish meat, changing to red near the stone, some- 

 thing like our Chinese Cling. # 



There are several strains of the "Hong tau," or red peach, growing 

 in the Chekiang, Chihli, Shantung, and Shansi provinces, and even 

 in Manchuria. Some of these peaches are blood red and when cut 

 through look more like a beet root than anything else. One variety 

 in Shansi is even called the a Rho tau," or beef peach, so much does 

 it resemble meat. These, so far as has been observed, are not so 

 sweet as the Peento group of peaches. 



Of the Honey peaches there are also several varieties in China. In 

 the Shantung Province, especially, there seem to be some very fine 

 types. One which the writer ate in Taingtau was a large, white- 

 meated freestone of a very pronounced Honey-type shape, called 

 "Yang tau" by the natives. 



Of the flat or Peen peaches there are several varieties. Some 

 thrive in the moist southern regions of the Empire, others are to be 



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