
          2

"Perfectly unknown [so far as records go] for at least
a century after the introduction of the fruit, it was about
the year 1800 that it first appeared, in the neighborhood of
Philadelphia, and slowly extending its ravages did not become
general until after the close of the war [of 1812]."--Ibid.
p. 89.

"The grand cause is supposed to be the exhaustion of the
land by excessive and unintermittent cropping."--Ibid. pp.
89-90.  i.e. lack of proper pruning , etc.

"In lands far less favorable in point of climate [than
the United States], but where art has lent its kindly aid to
the peach, its existence has been prolonged beyond even the
term which nature seemed to have assigned to it; for while
the American peach, left to itself, never lives beyond twenty
or thirty years, trees in France subjected to annual pruning,
have been found, when upwards of sixty year old, still in
full health and vigor.--Ibid. p. 90.

"The present state of  its culture in England makes the
peach almost exclusively a luxury confined to the wealthy.--
Ibid. p. 93.

"The stocks in ordinary use for budding the apricot, are
        