The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1904-06-18
Peaches on the Missouri River Hills.


these words awakenl Peaches on the
Missouri River hills" bluffs" we
called them in boyhOod days, back 10
the sixties, down into old Gasconade
county. Just below the town Of
Herman, on a ridge running south
from the rivers shore was our fathers
orchard Of or 500 trees. Early York,
E, Tnlotson, Troth's Early, Baltimore
Beauty, Old Nixon Free, Crawford'S
Early and Late, Snow, Columbia
Heath, Lemon, Blood and old Nixon
Chngs are some of the varieties l
recall. Hold, there was one other,
of which NO one knew the name, a
free stone, large, round, white over.
cast with a dull pink, whose Juicy
flesh was the tenderest and sweetest
ever ate. When towards the close
OF It's season the fruit dropped from
the tree, it would flatten on the
ground like a lump of dough. Gin
gerly we boys would lift them up out
of the grass, and suck their soft
delicious, honey favored tissue with
a relish such as boys only enjoy.
In peach gathering time we boys
would gather sassafras and peach
leaves, which we're used by the men
to put in the bottom of the boxes and
between the layers Of peaches. All
Kinds Of boxes were used. Soap,
candle, shoe, cracker and any other
holding from one ha,f hushel to over
two bushel, and then sent to St.
Louis, where they often sold for SO to
"a per bushel. $500 worth were
sold one season. No peach crop failed
until that iateful New Years eve 10
'64, when not only all buds were
killed, but all trees we're injured above
the snow, which lay about ten inches
deep. In '66 a delegation Of sixty
members Of the American Pathological
Society, (then holding its meeting in
St. Iouis) came up to visit this
orchard, which at the time was
rented by our uncle, the late Professor
George Hausman, and 1 saw a peach
there measured On the tree, II inches
10 circumference. Years before this
1 remember seeing on mantel in our
setting-room preserved in alcohol In
large glass jar, three peaches which
were said to have measured l3 inches.
But enough Of these "reminiscences
Some of the lessons l learned during
the first twenty-eight years Of my
life on the old homestead l will try
to give as briefly as possible. /
noticed that on our river hills the
grass and also wheat started earlier
in spring and grew later in fall than
that only few miles away from the
river, and that (after '64) we Otter
had fair crop of peaches when two
or three miles from the. river there
were few or none. Then there wa:
an island 10 the river, three mile:
above town, where it was said peaches
never failed. Why was this? ThC
river surely exerted a beneficial in
fuence. But how? Seeing the fos
gather and float or being driven owe
the hills showed that the soil, tree
and plants adjacent to the river re
ceived more moisture and also caused
evaporation to less extent than il
localities out of the reach of thes
fogs. And besides fog there is
heavy invisible evaporation of tn
water going on during the heat Of Uh
day, and to some extent during lh
night, summer aud winter, whicl
moisture is in part, at least, deposit
ed on the river hills aud valleys
Still, moisture alone was not a suffi
clent cause. Elevation also had som
influence, because we know in ridlnl
across country at night the air on th
hills teels warm, while that of th
valleys is cool. There was yet anothe
cause. The temperature near th
river is less subject to extrem,S, ol
account OF she W ter's modifying
influence, it cooling the atpuSprer
in warm weather, thus giving mor
equable temperature. Another ad
vantage these hills possess is in th
sandy nature and depth Of the sni
and good natural drainage. TIL
prime factor, however, is the extr
moisture derived from the river
, Since '7s, when moved to Lexington
peaches failed frequently, but on tn