The daily gazette., 1875-06-26
from the Philadelphia Evenlng Bulletin.j
The PeHinSu lar Peach.

The PeHinsu lar Peach.
The crops of the little State of Dels-
ware have always been remarkable. con-
sidering its size. Outside Of New Caskle
county it raises an unusual quantity of
Democrats to the acre. 1t has, during
each year, regardless of the weather and
the Signal Service, a crop Of whipped
convicts, against which all the other
States of the Union combined cannot
compete. 1t raises Saulsburys and
strawb berries in formidable quantities.
no matter what the season may be. And
now it comes audaciouslJ to the front as
the. Great American Peach Producer.
and, along with few dependent coun-
ties OF Maryland, it tells the whole East
ern part of tho Republic what it is to
expect In the matter of that fruit during
this summer of 1875
Eight millions of baskets of peaches
are promised by little Delaware and its
dependencies during the season now
threatening; and six millions of these
baskets have to be transported from or
through Wilmington by railroad. Sup
posing the average basket very small,
we may have fifty to basket, which
means 30O,000,000 of peaches that are
to travel by rail out of Wilmington. Or
call the baskets large and the peach
small-say a hundred to basket-and
the number expands to G00,000.000, or
enough to supply ouch adult inhabitant
OF this globe with a Delaware or Mary
land peach. Such figures as these are
overwhelming, and no comment can be
made upon them that can add to their
immensity.
The peach grows into O power in the
land, when it piles itself up into such
huge figures. 1t owes it's development
as fruit, as an aliment, as a medica.
ment, as an object of beauty, as a mar.
ketable object and as q commercial and
political agent, to America, and especi.
ally to the peninsula of which Delaware
forms a part. Its first known stage in
natural history was as the almond. Then
it developed into the shining. ruddy,
smooth-faced nectarine, alluded to in the
report of the feast of Adam and Eve
when
"to their supper fruits they fell,
Nectarine fruits, which the compliant
boughs yielded them"
How much moro compliant the boughs
OF Delaware, which yield the fruit, now
fully developed and maturely dow, y, By
the milli,n basketfuls. What country
that would be for Garden of Eden, Il
it wore not possessed by Bayards. Sauls-
burys, whipping posts and other pillars
Of democracy, TO say nothing Of swarms
of Copperheads, single one OF which
did so much mischief in the original
garden.
What development is the Delaware
peach from tho rare but pretty Persicuns
malum SO highly priced by the ancient
Romans, or oven from the little peach
that costa franc or two in Paris res
taurant, or the not quite so little one
that the English noblo cultivates on
warm espdliers with such tender care.
But the peach education of the Enro-
peans Is necessarily restricted. They
know nothing abeut the Delaware peach
If they did. there would be q company
organized at once in London to build q
pneumatic tube across or under the
ocean, to deliver Delaware peaches gath
cred the same morning, and the stock
would at once soar above par.
Without having European market,
except in its canned condition, the Della
ware peach has attained such power
that it commands thegreat Z. Rcorpora-
tionsoF America. LII Grower. .whoa5 man
Of cap ital demands capital letter is
grandee of the first class. He organizes
meetings which dictate terms to railroad
Presidents, and order them to have 30
many trains of cars dag, while the
crop lust, to transport the peaches to
great cities. He thus exalts the luccious
fruit above cotton, wheat, corn and pro
visions, and for q brief season Of a few
weeks, Peach ia King. The Growers,
power may be dangerously used, at times
as may that of any upstart despot, and
as was that Of Napoleon III. There may
| be gambeing in peaches, there may be
| bulls and bears III peaches, and when
there is full crop there are sure to be
pigs that get up corner IN peaches, and
run riot in them. Thus delicious pro-
duct is liable to be degraded. by. the
good housekeeper who spoils good BRAN
| dy, good peaches and good husbands
/ temper by making what is called Iran.
dy. peaches Transpose these words.and
we have another degrading product of
the fruit, called peach brandy" which
is generally as crooked" as the whls-
key lately siezed by Secretary Bristow.
| whish pays little OF no tax to Uncle sam
and, taken in the seductive but distruc-
tive compound known ut the South as
peach and honey" has developed vari-
Gus kinds of madness. especially that
known in the Secession days. The NOR
! al and political effects for which peach
and honey are answerabie at the South
are wholly beyond computation. But
peach brandy-the product of the sur
plus crop that neither cars. Gamers or
swine can dispose of-often goes toF France
and comes back with such French edu.
cation, polish and refinement. that 1t
passes for the best of grape brandy that
can be found in Bordeaux. If it paid
an excise dnty, and then an export duty.
and then an import duty, it would be +
very presious product for the United
States Treasury. AS Is there will be
thousands of gallons Of peach juice sent
from the Peninsula this year that Will
come back from France next year as very
superior French grape brandy