Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1870-05-19
ILMINGTON, DEL, THURSDAY, MAY 10. 1870.
tFrom the Germantown Telegraph
Tho Philosophy Of success In Pench
Culture.

Many attribute to "luck, 81 chance" ol
fate," that success which the specia
providence of God enables some to recognize
as the result of natural laws. The recOgni
tion of these invariable laws is philosophy
but mans philosophy, however plausible,
may not only be erroneous, but the illusion
| may be apparently recognized even by the
Bible, as In the case of the "setting of the
sun" (which ignorance was winked at
until Gallileo corrected our view without
correcting our language, which, for all
practical purposes, is better adapted for the
mass of mankind than it would be ifsubjected
to the radical change necessary to convey
precisely the correct philosophy.
Freezing is ascertained to be actually 3
warming process In proportion as the we'll
known fact that the melting of ice In summer
congeals cream, &c. Upon this principle
the climate at the head of the Delaware bay
should be few degrees warmer than lis
latitude would indicate during the minter
months, and especially during the most
severely cold weather. Not only from the
cause above alluded to, viz: the evolution OF
the latent heat of moist air as it freezes re-
sembling cloud of smoke when drifting
over the land from the bay, but also actually
conveying the warmth of the water of the
bay In free or sensible form to those farms
which bind on the shore. Moreover, third
reason Is the we'll known fact that snow is
the origin of climate to very great extent,
and when 1t falls In the bay or In water it
cannot remain to reproduce cold wind as
1t does on the upper portion of our county.
A fourth reason for the peculiar climate of
the peach district of Delaware is the direc
tion of the river above Fort Delaware, which
throws the warmer air from that direction
also upon 1t andiuvaribly determines whether
the the snow that falls above Delaware City
shall descend rs rain below it.
A straight line drawn from the extremity
OF Cape May through the centre of Delawre
Bay, will intersect the only natural harbor
on this bav which is at the head, and where
William Penn first landed, and therefore
called ever since "Port-Pe Here also
Whitfield tarried and preached for a week
because it was his last harbor in leaving the
Delaware river, and he must (at that time)
wait for the wind. This line and one inter-
secting II as above described, embrace the
three successful orchards in 1868, surrounded
on all sides with hundreds of orchards
without peach. am aware that the re-
markable success of these three orchards has
been attributed to the preference for wood
ashes 10 manuriug them; but my theory of
climate Is latesst plausible.
During the summer the climate is reversed,
viz: sea-breeze insure pleasant night,
however warm the bay may be, and in the
spring the chilly air of the bay derived from
the ice and " back water from the cold
districts Of north"rn New York and New
Jersey, among the Cstskill mountains, keeps
back the peach-buds and c,rn planting until
our neghbo get ahead of us by ten days or
two weeks. The floating ice In the spring
may be transporting to us the climate Of
"the Highlands" of New York or Penn
sylvania; thus our neighbors in Sussex lost
all their peaches in 1868, while we had an
abundant crop; and In 1869 they only secured
the Hale" and some early varieties which
blossom late in the spring alter the late
peach-bloom was destroyed by the frost and
snow.
Appreciating the value of these seven rea-
sons and the causes for the failure and dis
couragement of many of my neighbors and
their utter failure in every attempt to make
peaches pay, invested nay land and several
thousand dollars In spite OF the apparent
experiences and warnings Of many practical
farmers, adopting my OtOn rational system
OF cnltnre-manuring, pruning, &c.-which
may also publish as supplementary to the
above; but however others may SEEK TO
know my mode of apply ing manure and pre-
venting the necessity for worming the trees,
&C., each will inevitably deviate so much
from science that they must deserve the
credit If they succeed also, and liltl, more
so IN Pennsylvania, if l may judge my
neighbors by the report of tine Pennsyl-
vania Horticultural Society as ecleclics.
DAVID STEWART, M. ID.
Port Penn, DEL, March, 1870.