The daily gazette., 1875-05-22
The History Of the Peach Business.
BY Samuel Townsend.
Fo,. the Delaware Gazette.

of it-I have very little objection tC
and had it stopped there | would no
have taken any exception to it; but al
ter that he goes on to say: I'VE do no
handle our fresh fruit to as good advan
| tage to the grower as our neiglibors eve
in New Jersey do; they are older in tn
business, and as tho fruit begins to fai
with them they are getting to manag
! it quite prudently. With a good crop
| if we nett fifty cents o basket we thinl
we do we'll. In 1874. with about thir'
OF crop, prices ranged from 75 cents t.
S1.90 per basket. Our Jersey neighbor
sell the crop in the orchard, to be pick
| ed, assorted and delivered to the pur
chaser at the nearest depot. When prac
I .4cc BILE, the sales are made in the monti
OF July. With us, the whole busines
Of marketing. including the procuring
of transportion, loading, hauling anC
unloading, IS placed in the hands O
conlmi43.o.4 merchants agents, with fe3
exceptions, TO handle as they think best
These items of expense, by well known
system, "if you will tickle me | will tic.
kle you," foot up to considerable item
which greatly reduces the profits" &c.
Now after reading the quotation above
and much more such stuff following in
the same editorial, think l read in one
of the New York papers, last season.
something similar, put in by some Wis
ionary humbug that knew very little, il
anything, about the peach business
and we have gentleman belonging to
I. our Peninsular Fruit Growers Associa-
ton given to such highfalutin nonsense,
and l have often demolished his air cas-
ties before our association, and there
would probably have been the fitting
nla aa-bafopa man w ha OrOyy and shin
peaches-to have answered the above;
but as it has been put in the papers and
reflects upon the peach growers and
shippers of Delaware who have had
years Of experience and whose skill and
management has nearly driven these
Jersey Solomons out OF the peach mar
ket. In the first place, the growing of
peaches extensively for market is about
as old in Delaware as in Jersey; Ridga-
way and Reeves, near Delaware City,
planted from 1881 to '35 or SO the lar
gest peach orchard at that time in the
United States, and had them picked and
hauled TO Delaware City and shipp ped in
baskets by boats to Philadelphia, and
there sold by mentor commission lin
those times of five per cent? and it is
said that their first full crop cleared
them thirteen or fourteen thousand dol
Amboy Railroad Company went into the
peach business largely; and this success
full crop of Ridgaway d Reeves stimula-
ted Delawareans, and with them Major
Reybold and his sons, Messrs. Corbit &
Appleton and Mr.. Spearman, of Smyrna,
Mr.. Thomas Deakyne, near the mouth of
Smyrna Creek, Mr.. Fl. Todd, of Dover,
and Mr.. Read, and some others. The
first planted for market was in 1871.
We all marketed, both Delaware and
Jersey, pretty much the same way-by
boat to Philadelphia-and had them sold
by commission merchants or sent men
up and paid them by the month to sell
them and gather and return the baskets
Farmers along the Sassafras river went
into planting trees about this time and
the production of Delaware and Mary
land became so enormous and also grow
ing larger and finer peaches, we drove
the Jerseymen out of the Philadelphia
market. The Camden q Amboy Compa-
ny cut their trees down and then sprung
up set Of land peach pirates, some Of
whom were men OF straw, who would go
round and buy peaches as this writer in
Euerg Evening proposes. Ii they made
good thing they paid; if not, they
backed out, and the grower lost. Major
Reybold and dozens of others had law
suits with these gentry, but never OBJ
tanned much; SO that it is hardly likely
that any peach grower with a moderate
amount of sense would fall back on this
old exploded plan. When the Delaware
Railroad was completed new stimulous
was given to growing peaches ON land
that had heretofore been considered too
far off from the water courses-the haul.
ing was too great-but now the railroad
was within reaching distance, thousands
! and thousands of peach trees were soon
planted. Our production was so great
| that Philadelphia market was glutted. A
set Of about thirty five New Workers and
Jerseymen formed into close corpora
J ton to buy peaches in Philadelphia ano
ship them to New York by the Camder
& Amboy Railroad. These men ruled
the Philadelphia market, giving the ad
vantage to the owners of the peaches
brought up on boats, for these boat
could go over to Camden and unload
therefore giving them an ndvantag
over the peaches brought up by rail
road. Now, here will show how peach
|, - were taken beyond Philadelphia :
e-e we're little box cars holding abou
seventy baskets each, with one slatte
door; these small cars were pulled O
fiat cars and taken from Camden to Am
boy, and then re-shtpped to Now Yor
On steamboa 8, arriving on the secon
morning from Delaware. Now mind
this was all these superior cd experi
enced Jerseymen had advanced to in get
ting peaches up to New York up to 1856.
In 1851, with the consent of Mr.. Feltor
the then President of the P, w. & I
r. R. Company, l had fixed the frs
railroad cars with Slated doors an
shelving, SO that each tier of basket
would rest separate and have ventils
ton. The Railroad Company in 1sf
improved my plan with moro ventilf
tion and middle supporters of the shel,
ing. afterwards, as the chairman Of
Committee on Ventilation, for our Assc
citation, met Mr.. Kenney on the part {
the P. w. & b. Co., and had the iron lat
tice windows put in each end OF the car
The Committee then by appointmer
met Walter Freeman on the part of tn
Camden C Amboy Company and tol
him what we had arranged with the |
i. r. r. Company to do and he promise
to do the same, but to this day it has nt
been done, either by the Camden & An
: boy Company or the P. r. r. Compan
who bought them out.
Therefore their cars, not having en-
ventilators, are not as good fruit cars