THE PEACH. 



581 



heaviest crops in every garden and orchard. Thousands of acres are 

 devoted to this crop for the supply of the markets of our large cities. 

 The market price usually varies according to the abundance of the crop, 

 and to the earliness or lateness of the season at which they are offered. 

 Many growers have orchards of from 10,000 to 100,000 trees of dif- 

 ferent ages, and send to market in good seasons as many bushels of fruit 

 from the bearing trees. When the crop is not universally abundant, 

 the profits are very large ; if the contrary, they are often very little. 



The very great facility with which the peach grows in this country, 

 and the numerous crops it produces, almost without care, have led to a 

 carelessness of cultivation which has greatly enfeebled the stock, and, 

 as we shall presently show, has in many places produced a disease pecu- 

 liar to this country. This renders it necessary to give some additional 

 care and attention to the cultivation of the peach ; and with very tri- 

 fling care this delicious fruit may be produced in great abundance for 

 many successive years. 



Uses. Certainly no one expects us to write the praises of the peach 

 as the most delicious of fruits. " To gild refined gold " would be a 

 task quite as necessary, and if any one doubts the precise rank which 

 the peach should take among the different fruits of even that cornuco- 

 pian month — September — and wishes to convince us of the higher flavor 

 of a Seckel or a Belle Lucrative pear, we will promise to stop his mouth 

 and his argument with a sunny-cheeked and melting " George the 

 Fourth," or luscious " Rareripe ! " No man who lives under a warm 

 sun will hesitate about giving a due share of his garden to peaches, if 

 he have no orchard ; and even he who lives north of the best Indian corn 

 limits ought to venture on a small line of espalier for the sake of the 

 peach. In pies and pastry, and for various kinds of preserving, the 

 peach is everywhere highly esteemed. At the South and West a consid- 

 erable quantity of peach brandy is annually distilled from them, but we 

 believe by no means so much as formerly. Hogs are fattened, in such 

 districts, on the refuse of the orchard and distillery. 



In most parts of the country where peaches are largely cultivated 

 the fruit is dried, and in this state sent to market in very large quanti- 

 ties. The drying is performed, on a small scale, in spent ovens ; on a 

 large scale, in a small drying-house heated by a stove, and fitted up with 

 ventilated drawers. These drawers, the bottoms of which are formed of 

 laths, or narrow strips sufficiently open to allow the air to circulate 

 through them, are filled with peaches in halves. They are cut in two 

 without being peeled, the stones taken out, and the two halves placed 

 in a single layer with the skin downward. In a short time the heat of 

 the drying-house will complete the drying, and the drawers are then 

 ready for a second filling. Farther south they are spread upon boards 

 or frames, and dried in the sun merely ; but usually with the previous 

 preparation of dipping the peaches (in baskets) for a few minutes in 

 boiling water before halving them. 



The leaf of the peach, bruised in water and distilled, gives the peach 

 water, so much esteemed by many for flavoring articles of delicate cook- 

 ery ; and steeped in brandy or spirits, they communicate to it the fla- 

 .vor of Noyau. Indeed a very good imitation of the celebrated Noyau 

 is made in this way, by using the best white brandy, which, after being 

 thus flavored, is sweetened with refined sugar mixed with a small quan- 

 tity of milk, and afterwards decanted. 



