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FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON*. 45
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
, . , —' Xi. The Peach. Its Itaxy *' Hom...
grafted on , their own kind , they continue with good management to remain healthand-fruitful , at -least as long as the ordinary span of
y a human life , while preaching , too , an eloquent lesson to humanity . in the fact that not only do trees of from forty to sixty years old
bear good crops when younger ones are found failing , but the fruit of these veterans is also of finer flavor than that produced by the
rising generation . In England they always require the protection of a wall , but it was Mr . Knight ' s opinion that in successive
generations the tree might , be so hardened and naturalized to our climate as to be grown successfully in its proper form as a standard . That
gentleman devoted much attention to this subject , and originated many . of the numerous varieties now grown , by planting
dwarftrees in large pots , and , when the flowers were in full perfection , impregnating the pistil of . one blossom with the pollen _froni
another : only three peaches were allowed to mature upon each tree _, the stones of . which were then sown the next year , and new and
fine kinds thus obtained . * In France peaches are more plentiful than with us , but even
there they usually require to be grown against walls ; and though the soft melting sorts , thrive admirably near Paris , the
firmfleshed varieties , though they attain fine flavor , never completely ripen . The best are grown at Montreuilwhere a large part of the
, population devote themselves exclusively to this branch of fruit culture .
In Sierra Leone the peach is reckoned one of the most valuable of the fruits grown there ; at the Cape it is abundant and cheap ;
and we may hope that by this time it is fast spreading over the interior of Africa , not only adding an innocent luxury to the scanty
fare of the natives , but quickening them to desire improvement by displaying itself as in every sense one of the fruits of civilization
, and calling forth the kindly emotions in reminding them of the disinterested benevolence of the white brother to whom they owe it , the
peach having been introduced in 1822 by the enlightened and beneficent traveller _Burchell . In this gentleman ' s interesting account
of South Africa , he mentions having distributed peach-stones on several occasions ; and particularly when taking leave of the chief
of the Bachepins , to whom he presented a quart bagful , advising ; him to send a few to each of his , subordinate chieftains ; assuring
him that they had been brought for no other purpose than to benefit the Bachepin nation by introducing into their country a fruit
_sujDerior to anything they had ever yet known , a few berries being their only spontaneous growths , and gourds or melons the only
cultivated ones ; and impressing on him their value by telling him that when once grown they would continue year after year , without
further trouble , to produce abundance of large fruit of very fine flavor ; Juding that it would be the best , pleader of its own cause
the kind-hearted g traveller endeavored , as a further inducement to ,
his savage friend to take care . of the future trees , to give him a
Fruits In Their Season*. 45
FRUITS IN THEIR SEASON * . 45
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1861, page 45, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091861/page/45/
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