Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-01-30
THE PEACH.
The Culture Of Dslaware's Peculiar Fruit.
RRRIKs OF PRACTICAL ARTICLES, ny AN OBJ
SERVER IN ONE OF THE GREATEST PRAcH
nIsTRIors OF KENT COUNTY
Ns.III.


The interests of fruit growers In this State
have heretofore suffered much for want of
thorough organization. Self interest dom
mating SO largely in human nature, loses
none of its intensity when concentrated In
corporations, and Railroad companies are
likely to charge high so long as they can do
so with impunity. The few Individual If
forts which have been made for redress,
were not conducted in spirit calculated to
effect good purpose. On the contrary,
tho suits at law brought against the COM
panies for damages suffered, lin most cases
through no fault of theirs,) very naturally
resulted in hostility of feeling between the
railroad companies and the shippers of fruit,
which has been very prejudicial TO the in
terests of both. But happily, both parties
have seen the error, and things promise bet
ter tor the future. The fruit growers have
learned the utility of organization and long
stride was made in the right direction when
they met in convention.
Let the ssPeach Growers Association" he
come thoroughly organized, hold their
quarterly or semi-annual meetings, use ra-
tional and conciliatory measures with the
transportation agencies, and there is no
doubt but that the best AMI cheapest means
for getting their fruit to market will soon be
developed. When this is accomplished a
fresh impulse. will have been given to fruit
growing on the peninsula Large as the
fruit interest now is, it is destined to increase
rapidly in the future. More trees were
planted in this vicinity last fall than ever bo-
fore in one season, and, what is significant,
those who have had most experience IN the
business are the most anxious to extend
their orchards.
Our land holders, and more especially
small farmers, must soon learn, if they have
not already, that at the present high prices
of labor fertilizers, etc., it will not pay to
cultivate, as market products, the old staples
of corn, wheat, and oats. The farmer, with
his fifty or hundred acres of corn-sick"
land, such as is found in the lower part of
Kent, and most Of Sussex counties, with the
most unremitting toll from one years end 10
the other, can scarcely exc out living
adapted to the most humble taste, and as
for educating his children, or laying up any
thing for the future, this is out of the ques.
ton. Under the false system Of take of
all and put back none, his farm grows poor
er year after year until it ceases to pay fol
tillage. Farmers of Delaware! stop Til
miserable, shiftless system of farming, OIL
, you will impoverish yourselves, and driv,
! your posterity from the home of their ia
, theirs, to seek u virgin soil in the far West
What shall You do? hope to answer thi
question more deliberately in some iutur
issue of the TRibuSE; for the present suflic
/ to say
n Sell off your land, at any price you cal
n get for it, and if you give it away, you vii
If be the better for it, in less than ten years.
e. Keep just what you can manage easily; d
~ vide ii into small fields establish judic
at GUS rotation Of crops, and instead Of allow
st ing your land to ''rest' by being as bare I
ID desert, with the sunshine and atmosphe
d. sucking out the last particle of vitality, so
in on your grass Glover seed, with bount
is full hand
Sc Do MT attempt to raise more grain TIL
on will serve you, until, by turning under yo
ms clover sod, you have brought back your $
in to condition Of fertility that will inst
ut at least twenty bushels of wheat, or forty
M corn to the acre These are us low rates
&C. yield as will pay well for cultivation.
t 2 Meantime, for market produce, Guilty.;
of fruits and vegetables. Put out your
ne chards of peaches, pears, apples, cAerri,
nd plums, apricots, &c. Cultivate strawberri
M hlackberries, gooseberries, and if you ha
full land adapted to them, cranberries Gre
ito variety of such things, maturing in TIL
he order through the season. Do MI be Afr;
as that trucking" won't pay. Your old
ere thodox "crap" of corn, ten bushels of 'sn,
,se bins to the acre won't pay rest assured
* that. 1t WiU pay. An instance of
err profit of trucking A friend of mine, u
ere this place, has some hot beds, under gla
led in which he started his tomatoes, last 8
The son. In two Of these, 100 feet long by I
rs feet wide, each, on the ''spcnt' manure,
in sowed lettuce in October last. From this
ss, has shipped to New-York Market thus
red this winter, twenty-five barrels, averag
or about enc hundred and forty heads to
ich barrel. Selling for ten cents head il r.
to lied him the neat little sum of $3.50 II
ion many farmers toilcd hard through all
the year raising grain for less profit than
t of realized by this trucker" from ILLS 81
2s, fraction of an acre of land.
,out Pardon me, Messrs. Editors! am ost,
ire, IDLY writing on peach culture, but have
ugh crossed too far to get back in this articl
,uld In the next will "speak to the questi,
.a.a w {,