Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/217

 PEACH 20T titles of the fruit, and in California the produc- tion is immense. In establishing an orchard, the planter purchases his trees from a nursery, or, as is the custom in large orchards, produces them himself. The stocks are raised from seeds, those being preferred from what are called natural fruit; in Virginia and other- states there are old orchards of seedling fruit (. <?., the trees of which have never been bud- ded), and stocks raised from the seeds of such trees are regarded as more free from disease than from those of finer varieties. The seeds must be exposed to the influence of the weath- er during winter, the most common method being to spread them in the autumn in a layer 3 in. thick and spade them under ; some cover them with several inches of tan bark or saw dust ; in spring, the soil for the nursery being prepared and laid out in furrows about 4 ft. apart and 2 in. deep, the seeds are taken from the seed bed and the earth sifted from them ; most of them will then have their shells so loos- ened that they may be removed by the fingers ; those which remain firm are cracked with a hammer, and the kernels dropped 2 in. apart in the furrows and covered. The young trees soon appear, and are kept free from weeds till August or September, when they are budded with the desired variety ; budding is done very rapidly, 2,000 buds being a fair day's work, and some very expert hands will put in 3,000. The following spring, as- soon as vegetation starts, the stocks are cut off above the bud, and all bu4s that appear on the stock below the one inserted are rubbed off; the soil is well cultivated all the season, at the close of which, when the leaves begin to fall, the trees are ready to be set in the orchard. Planting is done in the autumn or spring ; the trees are set 20 ft. apart each way, and the spaces be- tween occupied by corn or some other hoed crop until the trees need the room; during this time the trees have the needed pruning to form their heads; they come into profitable bearing the fourth year after planting, yield- ing on an average a basket to the tree, though some fruit may be borne the second or even the first year. Picking is done when the fruit is in such a condition that it will be fit for use by the time it reaches the consumer, and it is always hard ; a single soft peach will spoil the rest in the basket or crate ; from the necessity for picking the fruit before it is fully ripe, the consumer does not get it in perfection, as to be at its best it should come into eating con- dition on the tree ; in the orchards all the best fruit, that which is tree-ripened, goes to the pigs. Peaches are shipped in baskets hold- ing five eighths of a bushel, or in crates with a partition in the middle, each half of the capacity of a basket ; extra choice fruit is "sprigged" by having a leafy branch of the tree at the top of the basket or crate ; special trains with cars properly fitted for the traffic are run during the season irom the peach cen- tres to New York and Philadelphia. After the 644 VOL. xin. 14 crop is off, fertilizers are applied, the ground ploughed, and the trees pruned ; a heavy crop often breaks down limbs, which have to be removed. The canning of peaches is now an immense business ; the headquarters are at Baltimore, where the establishments put up oysters in winter and peaches, tomatoes, and other fruits in summer ; in some instances owners of large orchards have their own can- ning establishments on the place. The pro- cess of preserving is very simple ; the cans are rapidly made by machinery, and have a cir- cular opening at one end for the admission of fruit; the peaches, peeled and halved by hand, are thrown into a hopper from which a spout leads to the floor below ; the cans are placed under this spout, and by aid of the fin- gers rapidly filled ; a weak sirup is run into the can to fill all the interstices ; then it goes to the solderer, who puts on the circular cover ; this has a small hole pricked in it to allow of the escape of the air which is expanded by the heat of the soldering iron ; when the edge of the cover is secured, this hole is closed by a touch of solder; a large number of cans are placed on an iron grating and lowered into a vat of water at the bottom of which is a coil of pipe; high-pressure steam is let into this coil, and as the cans heat they are close- ly watched ; if air bubbles are seen to be given off by a can, that is removed as imperfect; the water is raised to boiling, and the cans re- main until their contents are heated to this temperature quite through. Considerable quan- tities of fruit are dried in various parts of the country by simply exposing it in slices to the heat of the sun ; such fruit is always dark-col- ored and greatly inferior to that prepared in the several patented kinds of drying apparatus, where artificial heat removes the moisture in a few hours. In some orchards the soft and in- ferior fruit has the juice pressed from it, fer- mented, and distilled to produce peach bran- dy ; the present excise laws have greatly dimin- ished this manufacture. Our climate is, except in the northernmost parts of the country, so favorable to the growth of the peach that the training upon walls and trellises, so much prac- tised in Europe, is unnecessary here. By culti- vation under glass the fruit may be forced, and those who live north of the limit of successful outdoor culture can enjoy the fruit by grow- ing it in houses without artificial heat ; peach houses are very common abroad, and some fine examples exist in this country in the grounds of wealthy proprietors; the trees are usually planted out, but they may be grown in pots or tubs, as the tree is very tractable, and by proper pruning fine specimens about 3 ft. high may be formed, which when loaded with fruit are beautiful objects. The peach grower has several enemies to contend with. The curl is a disease which attacks the young leaves, caus- ing them to swell up and become distorted; it is supposed by some to be due to an aphis or plant louse, but this is very doubtful. It is not