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LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
LETTEE IX. 
July 15tli. 
Peaches are now ripe ; and beneath our sunny 
skies they acquire a luscious flavour that no wall 
can impart in a colder climate. So highly is this 
fruit esteemed, that every farm has large tracts 
planted with it, as orchards, to one of which the 
slaves have liberty of access when they please ; — 
a politic concession, whereby the planter hopes, by 
the sacrifice of a portion of his produce, to save 
the remainder. There are many varieties common, 
differing greatly in their qualities and in the season 
of their maturity. 
Whole fields are also devoted to the culture of 
the different species of melons and gourds. The 
botanical appellation of these fruits, a berry, seems 
somewhat startling, when we think that some of 
them, the Water-melon for instance, often attain 
the length of two feet in the greatest diameter ; 
yet such they are, and when examined, indeed, a 
melon does possess a very great resemblance to an 
enormous gooseberry. The Gourd, or Calabash 
{Cucurhita lagenaria)^ is cultivated, not to be 
eaten, for which it is not at all fitted, but to be 
used for utensils of household economy. The leaves 
are roundish or heart-shaped, downy, and toothed 
at the edge: the fruit is woody, of a remarkable 
shape, like a long tube, swelling at the end into an 
