The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1873-07-05

and from this road during this week, quite
shipped. OF peaches not more than 70, -
600 baskets will be shipped over this road
during the present season.
From Salisbury there is a railroad run
ming to Snow Hill, distance of twenty
miles. On the line of this road not many
peaches are planted, but quite large pear
and cherry orchards are planted and
the small fruits are largely cultivated
Some of the finest strawberries are grown
on the line of this road
1t will be seen that almost every section
of the Peninsula is opened up to railroads,
and one would naturally conclude that it
was so abundantly supplied with them that
no more would be required. Yet the last
Legislature of Delaware chartered several
new roads, while under general railroad
law in Maryland several other roads in that
State are being built, while companies arc
organizing to build more, and if there is
any virtue in them, the experience of the
people Of this Peninsula will reveal it DUR
ing the next lew years.
A large number of New York commits
sion merchants are to be seen in Delaware
at this season of the year, as they find it
to their interest to go among the growers
to "drum" up trade. Some of the mer-
chants are heightened and thoroughly re-
liable. Others who canvass the State are
what are denominated in New York
"shysters," and as the "shysters " are
generally "mild and amiable men," they
ply their vocation to considerable extent
One of the favorite plans of these shysters
is to send a man into Delaware during the
early season to buy fruit. He goes merely
as speculator, and buys up little fruit
and ships to several houses his employer,
among the rest. The other houses to
which he ships, to make the game look
more like "sqare one, are generally old
and well-established houses. Of course
the returns he gets are always about the
same from the old houses, but those from
his employer are considerable higher
These returns are made known in conf
aSheAai "oy w ooiiiS PAOlhiiChu
and then to another, until the peach sea
son fairly opens. By that time the decoy
has generally attracted some game, and
men begin to ship their peaches to the
shyster. OF course, during the peach
picking season, the grower is too busy with
his picking to pay much attention to his
returns, especially as under the present
arrangement the freight Oh this fruit is
prepaid for him by the agent Of the shys-
ter; so two or three weeks pass and no
returns are received, and the grower begins
to make inquiries, and has his eyes opened
to the fact that he has been shipping all
the season to thief, who has been pay
ing out line to him all the season only to
get him more securely when his shipments
are at the highest
These are the kind of sharks that the
small growers must guard against all the
time, and these are the sharks that fasten
on the West Washington Market-men all
the odium that is fixed on them as class
of business men.
| have alluded several times in my letters
to the fact that all freight is prepaid, and
to the fact that the railroad company only
manifest loaded cars. Perhaps it would
be better to explain the systom of shipping
peaches over the Delaware Railroad to
New York. During the berry season the
railroad companies (the p, w. & B. and
Pennsylvania Railroad Companies) run
market cars through from Chrisfield to
New York, which gather up the fruit in
small lots; but with peaches they do not
do the freighting in that manner.
If grower wants to ship his peaches to
New York, he must make application to
the railroad company for SO many cars. If
all is satisfactory, the railroad companies
execute a contract that in consideration of
a certain fixed sum of money those COM
panies will transport daily SO many car
loads of fruit from specified point on the
Delaware Railroad to New York, provid-
ed, in all cases, that freight shall be pre-
paid. The growers either form companies
for that purpose or allow their commission
merchants to contract for them.
This system prevents delay in the deliv-
cry of peaches in your city, as the freight
being prepaid, there is no confusion in col
lecting accounts in Jersey City, and as each
commission merchant who has fruit sent
him has it consigned by the carload, his
cart can be ready to get his fruit out five
minutes after the arrival of the train in
l,,,+ e
200 cars arriving here at 4 O'Clock in the
morning can be unloaded, and reloaded
with empty baskets and dispatched again
by noon, or in eight hours.
My estimate, made from the best figures
l can get, makes the coming peach crop
yield as follows:
Baskets.
From the Delaware Railroad, in New
castle County, Delaware 1901
From the Delaware Railroad, in Kent
county, Delaware 1900, 600
From the Delaware Railroad, in Sus-
sex county, Delaware, 5000
From the Kent County Railroad, and
Queen Anne and Kent Railroad, l ZOO, 900
Maryland and Delaware Railroad, 400, 900
junction and Breakwater Railroad, 200, 900
Delaware and Dorchester Railroad, $4,000
Wicomico and p. Railroad, $4,000
From Delaware Railroad extension
in Maryland, $4,000
Total $3.50, 900
My estimates foot up several hundred
thousand over the estimate Of the Fruit
Growers Association, their estimate being
for 3, 200, 900 baskets. The falling off from
the last years crop in Newcastle county is
fully 100000 baskets, but this is fully
recovered in Kent and Sussex counties,
Delaware, while the Maryland crop is
large increase on that of last season. SO
that we must conclude that, as far as this
Peninsula is concerned, the crop of peach
es will exceed that of last year by fully
500, 900 baskets: but as reports from New
Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania indi-
cate an entire failure of the peach crop in
these States perhaps peaches may not be SO
abundant in our market as they were then.