The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-10-17
The Luscious Peach.

While stroliing along the river front a
New York telegram reporter met Del
aware peach grower experimenting the
unloading of a cargo of the fruit. lie
took things easy and talked BY the
yard. 49,,
"Where did the peach originated"
asked the reporter.
"No one knows for certainty, though
its origin is generally credited 20 Per
sia some careful investigators conclude
it to be really native of China. 1t IS
one of the fruits earliest cultivated; some
botanical writers think it is derived flom
the almond: the stain.kernel and the
leaves, you know, have bitter almond
twane, the kernels in both are often
double, and it rather curious fact that
the peach is not mentioned IN the Bible,
while reference to the almond IS ire
quent. 81.
sit grows in every place. but it is only
in this country that good peaches are
cheap enough for poor people to buy,
and only in the regions Immediately ad-
joining good peach sections is this true
here. First class fruit is seldom even IN
the best seasons, sold cheap in the Mid.
die and Western States. Plenty of
peaches are shipped but the best sell
high. New York is a favored city.
They're cheap enough here for anybody.
I should say-a regular peach lovers
paradise; I suppose no fruit has SO
many extravagant lovers as the peach.
"Some persons would like it better II
it had a smooth skin. / have little
Girl who won't eat a peach unless it's
Seeled for her, and she can't be induced
to handle them in the basket; says the
fuzz sets her 'all on cage, like sour
apple does your teeth.
THE tree is not naturally short lived,
though it is subject to so many mlstor-
tunes that it has gained that reputation.
There are trees in Virginia we'll on to
hundred years old, and there was one in
France thought to be older.
1.-THE stem kernel, and not the stem
itself. is the seed. Fruit is usually borne
the fourth year after the stem is planted,
though sometimes in sixteen months.
The seeds rarely produce their own vari,
ETY., so that nuEberless new sorts are all
the time growing; some OF these Will
thrive anywhere, others only In the To-
ca|ity which has developed them. Most
of the standard varieties in this country
have originated here.
"In places where the climate is too
cold for outdoor growth the peach ls
grown in houses. These peach houses
are not heated, protection from the outer
air being sufficient. The trees are some
times planted in tubs, and kept trimmed
down to about three feet; when these are
full Of fruits they're mighty pretty to
look at. There are some fine peach
houses in this country, but more in Eu-
rope. The tree is trained on walls there,
too, to protect it.
''Thc best peaches never reach market.
A peach is not perfect unless ripened on
the tree, but if we were to pack them
ripe they'd be rotten when opened; even
one soft one in crate will spoil the lot,
so we have to pick them when hard:
Did you ever notice baskets with small
green branches of the tree at top
and bottom2 Those are 'sprlgged.'
The choice peaches are marked that way.
When the fruit is all gathered from an
orchard we fertilize and plough the
ground and prune the tree:
tThe amount of peaches canned IS
something tremendous. The process is
lust the reverse of the kitchen method.
A woman heats the fruit, then cans it,
but in the factory it is canned, and then
heated to expel the air.
"Some peach trees bear double flow
ers beautiful as roses, but the fruit is no
good. The dwarf peach is queer little
tree that hears fruit when only one or
two feet high. The weeping peach is
handsome lawn tree; the fruit is only
good for cooking. The branches droop
like those of the weeping willow; it was
originated by a New Jersey man. The
blood leared peach is wonderfully strong
in spring, but the leaves bleach out in
summer.
'The queerest fruit produced by the
peach comes from China. One sort is,
called the crooked peach, but it's SO,
sweet it can afford to be crooked; the
other has the pulp all on the sides, the
ends of the stem having nothing over
them but skin. That's the flat peach,
or noan-to