Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-09-15
From the Boston Advertiser.
THE AUGUST FLOOD IN della.
WARE.
RIDLEY PARK.


DELAWARE Co., Pa. Aug. 80, 1873.
| wonder if the many readers of your
summer letters from mountain and shore
ever think how much there is to see in
parts of the country never visited in hot
weather by northerners. Last week
Mr.. Hinckley, the president of the Phil
adelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore
Railroad. invited party of gentlemen
to 60 down his road, partly that they
might see and try new spring seat,
and partly to show them some of the
wondrous peach orchards of Delaware,
which ship so many thousands of bask-
cts Of fruit every year to northern cities.
1t had been raining for many days, and
the ground was saturated and all the
streams were full. and we hoped for fair
weather. but it did not CONCEIVE start
ed in a rain and stayed in rain all
day. although there was a sufficient in
terval of clear weather to visit Cover
nor Ross's huge fruit farm at Seaford.
The farm has 500 acres of land, 100 of
which are in fruits of various kinds,
particularly peaches. During the early
summer he had shipped thousands of
boxes of strawberries and 10000 boxes
of blackberries, at clear profit of IL
cents box, and is now engaged in
sending his peaches to market. Owing
to various causes the peach crop is short
in Delaware and Maryland. but Sussex
county is an exception, the trees being
load d with fruit; we drove down alleys
of peach trees II to 20 feet high, so
heavily laden with fruit that the branch.
es bent in all directions like the barnch-
es of weeping willow, sustaining the ro-
sv-cheeked peaches that were so thickly
strung on every branchlet and twig that
each tree seemed huge bouquet. The
fragrance from the fields as the wind
swept over them was delicious, feastlng
the sense quite as much as the color de-
lighted the eye. Governor Ross has
sold all his crop, estimated at 10000
baskets, delivered at the station in front
of his door, for SLIP per basket; and
all who, like him, have a good crop,
were rushing their peaches into market,
sending 200 cars per day over the rail-
road, equal to 1000 tons of peaches a
day-a wonderful amount. All the Sus-
sex farmers blessed the peach crop and
the railroad which gave quick access
to market.
But still it rained, and as the rain
poured down and soaked the fruit and
the trees, they mourned the loss of fruit
which could not endure too much water
but they little dreamed of the sorrow in
store for them. The rain continued
during Wednesday, and between five
and eight P. M it poured with such We.
hemence that the rivers and streams ano
lakes rose with fury and swept all OBJ
stacles out Of their path. The Chesa
peake and Delaware Canal poured tor.
rent of water through its channel, which
soon rose over the banks, sweeping al
earth-work away as if they were of snow
and carried one propeller, two tugs, thir
ty-seven canal boats and twenty-eigh
sloops and schooners far into cornfeld
and meadows, and rushed many of ther
up into the town Of st. George. wher
) to-day large schooner may be seen
quarter of mile above the highest {
high-water marks, lying as composed
] in kitchen garden as if it were hug
] cabbage or a squash. Canal boats /;
den with coal and iron are now safel
settled in the burrows of corn grount
: and their cargoes are spread in conf
sion amongst RATS of lumber, heaps (,
:, railroad ties, piles of boards, and all Il
e shores are redolent with the odor of d
h caying fish which were stranded by tt
- receding. waters ST. George is se
port town indeed, and in sense Il
!. Oldest inhabitant never understood. II
main street of the town has been swe
70 away. and to-day, five days after t
ty disaster, the superintendent of the can
e is busy filling in the huge chasm wi
e little tip-carts, that carry rot more tn
90 two whellbarrow loads at time. VII
is one compares what the superintendent
the canal is doing with the gigantic wu