The daily gazette., 1875-05-24

The History Of The Peach Business.
By samuel Townsend.

For the Delaware Gazette.
[CONTINUED FROM SATURDAY.
Now so much for the cars. We origi-
nslly bought our peach baskets in Jer-
sey, as they had plenty OF scrub white
they charged us Is cents O basket. A
man by tho name of Carpenter in New
ark invented a machine to cat splits and
up along the Erie Railroad made baskets
for 20 cents; then Mitchell & Mayhood
first at Smyrna and since down in Dor.
chester county. and Worden and Evans,
now at Smyrna. Both Of these firms
invented and got up machines TO cut
gum and poplar into sheets, so that
they can and are now making stave
baskets at wholesale for aOout 10 cents,
OF uniform size, and better to ship
peaches in than any jersey made basket
that used to cost Is cents. As stated,
tried the route via Anboy in 1862-it
would not answer, for could not gain
any time over that close corporation of
thrty five hucksters; but the next year
they broke and brought all opposition
down, by making q clean run from the
Delaware peach orchards to Jersey City
IN one day less time than the Old route
via Camden and Amboy. We can now
pick to. day up to three or four o'clock
and have the peaches in the New York
market next morning before or by day
light. This revolution in the peach
bu .iness was brought about by Delaware
people ana not by cid fogy Jerseymen
that the writer IN Ev ~ Epening asks us
to pattern after. Now another smart
proposal he makes---to hold on until
July and then sell in the orchard, to be
delivered at the depot. Could lot and
would not such men combine, as the old
thirty-i used to do, and pay what
they pleasedp Such bosh as that puts
mo in mind OF u proposition that q
peach grower made one day to our Assc-
citation: "to make the Railroad Calnpa-
ny reduce freight" said he, "let as all
say nothing until our peaches are ripe.
and then tell the company We will not
ship q basket unless they carry them at
u price dictated by u.s." l told him
thought that experiment woulo be
little like the fellow that cut off his nose
to spite his face. We have in this peach
business a lot Of very visionary gentry
little labor or trouble for themselves,
and they often tender their advice very
gratuitously. We would be q pretty set
OF fools to raise peaches and let set of
men buy them at their own prices,
which they would do if We set ourselves
down and depend on men coming in
July to buy. No, sir; do not believe
in any such doctrine. We Delaware and
Maryland peach growers have beat the
Jerseymen in the production OF good
peaches, in better and cheaper baskets,
and better ventilated cars to carry them
to market, and shortened the time OF
getting peaches into New York markets
from Delaware and the Eastern Shore OF
Maryland to the time it takes Jersey
peaches to get into market until peach
raising in Jersey is played out, except q
small district northwest OF New Bruns-
wick, and tn ere they only succeed about
once in three or four years last year
they had crop, and one full crop on
the Jersey trees exhaust them so that
afterwards they bear few premature
peaches and then die. What we need
for Delaware and Maryland is plenty of
markets. Open up routes to ther places
beyond New York, and also to northern
Pennsylvania and western New York
and ship our peaches to all those mar
Ike Is, and also ship with the first peaches
our young, sharp men to stay and at
tend to the selling of the peaches during
the peach season, 80 thai the grower
and shipper will get all they sell for
clear of freight and commission. There
is a new scheme that certain New York
and Philadelphia commission men are
irving to fastcn on the peach grower,
and there is a set of men in Delaware
who as general thing are out OF bust
ness; these commission men Of Phila-
delphia and New York take hold of
these men and say to them, "n you will
blow and brag on our firm we will give
you three per cent. for all you get ship
ped to u.s." These men in Delaware and
Maryland then go around to the grower
and shipper armed with cards and stem
ell plates and tell the grower that Mr..
So-and so is as rich as Crosus, and that
if YOU will only ship to them you will
get big prices, that you have been cheat
ed all your life, that they have been all
but shedding tears for you for some
time. but your troubles will be over and
YOU will be rich man at the end of the
season if you will only accept this stem
ell plate and cards and ship to their ad-
dress, The season over the grower finds
that he has been paying extra three per
cent. to fellow at home for a recon-
mendation to some commission man in
New York OF Philadelphia to take the
balance Of his hide of. Therefore l say
to peach growers and shippers, beware
of country or home three per cent. re-
commanders; send your sons and others
YOU have confidence in to the head of
the market to help sell and see what
your fruit sells for: Then you will get
what your fruit sells for clear, and you
will by that means bring up and learn
the young men of Delaware and Mary
land to be good sharp salesmen for the
States they go from, and besides it is
more honorable than to be braggers for
men whom they often suppose are good
honest men and recommend them as
such, and at the end Of the season in
many cases they arc blame by their old
frlehds at home who through them have
been robbed by these commission men
of New Yoik and Philadelphia. All
north and east Of the Alleghany noun
tains is our legitimate mai ket for the
peaches of this Peninsula, and we can
beat any other spot in North America
raising peaches, We are more certain of
crops ind grow better peaches. Cheap
facilities and new markets and our men
to 20 and sell or he'll sell them lis all the
need; we need no lessons from Jersey
Zen or other outsiders.
CAMIvEI fINtpNc