THE PEACH 
590 
country, and the numerous crops it produces, almost without 
care, have led to a carelessness of cultivation which has greatly 
enfeebled the stock in the eastern half of the Union, and, as we 
shall presently show, has, in many places, produced a disease 
peculiar to this country. This renders it necessary to give some 
additional care and attention to the cultivation of the peach ; and 
with very trifling 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 cornucopian month — September — and wishes 
to convince us of the higher flavour of aSeckel or a Belle Lucra- 
tive 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 be who lives north of the best In- 
dian 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, where peaches are not easily carried to 
market, a considerable 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 Western New-York, and indeed in most parts of the coun- 
try where peaches are largely cultivated, the fruit is dried, and 
in this state sent to market in very large quantities. The dry- 
ing 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 down- 
ward. In a short time the heat of the drying house will com- 
plete 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 pre- 
paration 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 flavouring articles 
of delicate cookery ; and steeped in brandy or spirits, they com- 
municate to it the flavour of Noyeau. Indeed a very good 
imitation of the celebrated Noyeau is made in this way, by using 
