Wilmington daily gazette., 1874-05-05
Getting the Fruit to Market.
THE COST OF SHIPPING PEACHES-OTH
Err FINE PEACH ORCHARDS IN
THE COUNTY-lNTEkESI-
ING PEACH FIGURES


THE COUNTY-lNTEREST-
ING PEACH FIGURES.
Special Correspondence Of tho Gazette
PORT PENN, Dsl., May /, 1874.
l closed my last letter with description of the
immense peach farm owned by Mr.. :. f. Shall
cross. l beg leave to divcrgc little and show
what it costs him 10 get his crop to market.
Before counting the cost OF picking ii may be
well TO state that the largest and most enterpris-
ing peach grower cannot afford TO plant much |
more than one halt Of his land in peaches, other
wise he would have to purchase food Tor The stock
required to cultivate and manage the orchards. |
In the first place, before grower ready to pick
his peaches he must have on hand good supply
Of baskets, at least enough to last him ten Us II
he ship to New York, and enough to ship about |
two-thirds OF his crop II he ship to Philadelphia,
from whence baskets are scarcely ever returned
with any degree Of regularity, aud never more
than one half OF the quantity sent. Consequent
ly, when Mr. Shallcross commences picking. his
stock Of baskets is supposed To be $4,000 at least
These baskets cost about thirteen cents for The
commonest kind, consequently $1,000 worth OF
baskets are required to undertake the picking OF
such an orchard. The peach season lasts about
thlrty.hVe days, and to ship 200 baskets IN
that time requires that there be picked T. 100 bas-
kets per day. Fifly baskets per day being above
| the average amount picked by laborer, it re-
qures l3O men TO pick them Every five men
Will keep cutler busy. The peaches are all Gull
cd in well-managed orchards before they are put
/
| ty-dve cullers To keep supply OF baskets TO
| the pickers and culleis, and take the peaches to
| the culliag houses, requires about ten men, ten
| boys and ten horses and wagons. 10 ship one
days picking OF this size to the railroad requires
| about ten wagons, with two horses each, ten men,
or one 10 each wagon, two OF three leaders in the
orchard, and an extra help or two at the railroad
station. That ID, TO pick Gull, and ship one days
| ordinary picking from this orchard requires a.
least l20 inen, beside the oyerslers, anu at least
thirty horses. But as no horses could stand such
constant work without resi- 1t would require forty
horses The daily expense on laborer's wages
and horse iced does not fall far short OF SlU0
Therefore, to pick and ship such an orchard, uu-
der the most auspicious eircums tances, would
exceed Sl2, 900. To this must be added the cost
OF fully 4O,OOO baskets, which would be lost III
shipping the fruit from such an orchard and that
would put the cost OF shipment at about ST., 900,
and large enough sum, one would naturally
suppose, but, in fact, it cannot be done for that
price. aud grower thinks himself very fortunate
II he can move his peaches from his orchard to
the desired shipping point at cost of ten cents
per basket.
But the great difficulty OF managing the gath
ering and shipment of So extensive an orchard is
the Iacs that the fruit ripens unevenly For
example, there Is usually lapse OF three or four
days between the ripening OF the EARLY Yorks
and the .Crswfords Fairly aud a like time be-
tween the "Crawfords" and the "Old Mixens.
Yet they sometimes all rpen during the same
week and 80 1t Is with other varieties. All orch
ards are planted with II view of keeping up
constant supply of Ilpe fruit until the lrut is all
gathered, ami care Is usually taken to keep the
supply as regular as possible. So 1t easily he
seen that when the thee varieties mentioned ri
pen within the week there must be n day when
the amount of peaches picked will be far above
the average, perhaps three times rs great.
| Now II it takes POO laborers to secure G00I
taskets, 1t requires 500 10 gather 10 900 baskets
the probable amount npe ON the "blg" day. On
that occasion, every available hand Oh the farm
the farm hands wives and children, III Tact every
, one old enough to know II peach from u potllo
Is pressed into the orchard, and then not uu fre
( guently thousands OF baskets are lost 1t Is esi
. mated that under II like circumstance two year,
ago Mr.. Shallcross lost from 70 900 TO 25O0u bas
y kets of fruit.
D drive l, through very level country over beau
o tiful and excellent roads, distance OF three OF
. four miles, passing through the lands of III,
s III essrs. Cochran, brady, Williams and othe
well known growers. Ii would be IN vain (,
attempt to describe their peach orchards, and
r have not tho Information 10 give the number o
trees in each orchard, and therefore, can only
say that turn whichever way you may, on al
sides may be found orchards otthe finest growtl
, looking unusually healthy and vigorous, giyns
every promise OF an abundant yield. From
Boyd's Corner, by the way ofSnallcross, Il
| Middletown, Is about ten miles, and IL
making that drive we have passed through
| the heart OF the peach section OF New Castle
;. County, and undoubtedly. no like amoun
!. OF territory nor any other drive of ten miles
d OF road In the world exhibits 80 great a Tor
Is est OF fruit trees, and for miles around roads
It leading from the road over which we pssseC
!. the same extensive display of peach or
!. chards Is made. The Messrs. Cochran mum
a bsr the ees OF their orchards, not by thI
hundreds, bnt by the thousands. and al
orchard containing less than 1880 is no
= considered an orchard At all IN this section
but only few trees.
al From MiddletoWu we turn back, pOiul
r by O road q mile or 20 to the south. psssin,
y through the village o! Odessa. From Mid
J. dletown to Odessa there is not n rod of th
y road that does not pass along the edge OF
Il peach orchard; between Odessa and Me
Donough there are several OF the larges
kind, and from McDonough TO st. Angus
A,ine the road lies through an unbroken line