Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1880 — O, Peaches! [ARTICLE]

O, Peaches!

The peach originated in Persia and Northern India, and is of the same genus as the almond. The nectarine differs from the peach only in being smooth while the peach is downy. It is a mere variety, probably produced and assuredly preserved by cultivation. The free-stone peach of the French is their pechc, wfejia the cling stone is their -pavie. A remarkable variety, of . Chinese origin, has' the fruit compressed and flattened with almost evergreen leaves. The peach is cultivated widely in Southern Europg, in many parts of the East, in South America and Australia, though it has never, it is believed, attained the perfection of the fruit in the United States. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Ohio raise suburb peaches’ and have often orchards containing from 20,000 to 25,000 trees. The quaptity of dried peaches is reported to be steadily increasing, while peach bravely is diminishing. Peach water, obtained by bruising the leaves of the tree, the pulp with water, is not only employed for flavoring, but in fnedicine as a sedative and vermifuge. The stone of the fruit is very like the bitter almond in its properties, and the blossom are used in the facture of a liquor called Persico. In the Old and New World there are, it is said, more than 100 varieties of the delicious fruit