CHAP. XII.
Of the bad qualities of Peaches.
LET us now take a view of the bad qualities of Peaches.
The bad qualities of Peaches consist, *
- First, In having a Pulp too soft, and almost like Pap, to which Fault the white An∣dilly-Peaches are very subject.
- Secondly, in having it like Dough or Paste, and dry, as it is in most yellow Peaches,* and in most other Peaches that are suffered to grow too ripe upon the Tree.
- Thirdly, In having it gross and course, as in the Druselles, the Beet-Root-Peaches, and the ordinary Pau-Peaches.*
- Fourthly, In having a faint and insipid juice with a green and bitter tang, as is or∣dinarily found in those same Pau-Peaches, growing upon Wall-trees, and in the Narbens,*Double-Flower'd-Peaches, and common Peaches, otherwise called Corbeil or Vine-Peaches.
Page 141 In the fifth place, 'tis a fault to have a hard skin, as the Nipple-Peaches; and sixthly, * 'tis another fault to be sometimes so Vinous, as to contract from thence a Vinegarish sharp taste.
And now it can be no hard matter to judge of good Peaches, and amongst the good ones, to judge which are the best, no more than to judge which are bad, and among those bad ones, to judge which are the worst.
It is certain that all the Peaches of one certain kind, do not always prove so perfect as they naturally ought; no, nor all the Peaches of the same Tree neither, are not of an equal goodness.
We have already told you that 'tis a great fault in them to be too big or too lit∣tle; * it is likewise one to be either over, or not full ripe; Peaches to be just as ripe as they should be, and no more, should stick but slightly to their Stalks; for those that stick too fast to them, and cannot well be pulled without bringing the Stalk with them, are not ripe enough, and those that stick too gingerly on them, or not at all, but are perhaps already separated from them of themselves, and fallen upon the Ground, or up∣on the wooden Props set under them, are too Ripe, and are Past, as we say in terms of Gardening; that is, they are like dead things, and have lost all their Goodness. There are only the smoother sort of Peaches, all the Brugnons, or Nectarins, and all the Pavies or Bastard Peaches that can hardly be too ripe, so that in them it is no fault to fall of themselves.
Those that grow upon Branches that are beginning to turn Yellow, and are Sick, * and those which ripen very long before all the rest of the same Tree, or a very long time after both the first, and the most that succeed them upon the same Tree, are sub∣ject to prove bad, that is to say, to have all the bad qualities we have described, or at least to have a part of them; so that to meet with a good Peach upon a Tree, many con∣ditions are necessary, which I shall Explain when I come to give Directions how to ga∣ther them, and how infallibly to know a very good Peach from one that is but indiffe∣rent.
Our Business in this Place, is only to give our Judgment which are those good kinds that deserve admittance into our Wall-plantations, which I shall now proceed to Declare, provided, as I have before cautioned, that for any one ill quality that may be found in any of the Fruits I preferr, it be not therefore concluded, the whole Species is bad; nor for any Perfection that may be found in any one of those kinds I reject, it be not thence concluded, the whole kind is really good.
