Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-09-14
PEACH CULTURE.
OF THE INDUSTRY

sThis vacancy has not yet been filled.
PEACH CULTURE.
GROWTH OF THE INDUSTRY.
Thirty-five years ago the cultiva-
tiOn of peaches for the markets was
unknown in Delaware and Maryland.
Only in certain sections of New Jer-
sey was this interest looked upon as
If any Importance. There were
some five or six orchards in Bur-
lington county and few in GlOuces-
ter county. Most of the fruit
from these orchards was brought
to Philadelphia in large market
wagons and sold by the growers di-
recLly to consumers. Philadelphi-
ans were not then such fruit eaters
as they are now, and this limited
supply, together with the yield of
the natural trees which grew in
many gardens in the city, was suf-
ticient for the demand. A. few
years later, when, by means of rap
id transportation the fruit could be
got to market IN a fresh and appeti-
zing condition, the demand increased
enormously and peach growers of
New Jersey began to reap a rich re-
ward. The cultivation of peaches
as business grew into great i'm
portance. Among the first who
Looked to Delaware as a promising
field for the cultivation of peaches
was Mr.. Ridgeway, an eminent
Philadelphia merchant. Securing
the aid of a successful New Jersey
grower named Reeves, together they
purchased a tract of land on the
Delaware river, Just below Della
ware City, upon which they planted
abuot four thousand trees. At
that time this was looked upon as
All immense orchard. They received
profitable return from their in
vestment, but Mr.. Ridgeway was
far advanced in years and had al
ready amassed great fortune and
did not push the cultivation of
peaches to any great extent and
Mr.. Reeves means did not permit
him to do so. Consequently,
Messrs. Ridgeway and Reeves are
now generally known only as the
pioneers of peach culture in Della
ware.
The First Great Growers.
There lived near Delaware City
at the time that Messrs. Ridgeway
and Reeves were making their expert
ments, an enterprising Pennsylva-
nian, Major Philip Reybold, well
advanced in life and in good finan
cial circumstances. He had always
been a keen speculator, and had
made a small fortune as a contract
or in digging section of the Della
ware and Chesapeake Canal. He
readily learned the lesson which
Messrs. Ridgeway and Reeves ex-
pertinent taught, and inducing bis
sons, John, Barney, William,
Philip, CLAYTON and Anthony, to
purchase lands, which at that time
were selling at very low prices,
they all engaged in the cultivation
of peaches. In a few years in the
markets of Philadelphia, Baltimore,
New York and Boston, the names
of Reybold and peaches seemed to
be almost synonymous terms. The
Messers. ReybOld had in the aggre-
gate upwards of forty thousand
peach trees growing on their farms,
and the fruit from this number of
trees nearly supplied the market at
that time. 1t was said of them that
they instructed their agents in New
York and Philadelphia to throw all
the fruit into the river which they
could not sell above certain prices,
and on one memorable occasion in
New York, when the Mountaineer
arrived late one Saturday at that
port, the peach buyers formed a
combination by which they ex-
pected to buy the fruit at very low
prices, knowing that the steamer
would be fully loaded. The Major
dumped his whole cargo into the
Hudson.
After engaging most successfully
in the cultivation of peaches arr und
Delaware City for upwards of fifteen
wears, the Messrs. Reybold were
astonished to find that their lands
would no longer produce healthy
peach trees, and orchards upon
which had been bestowed the same
care and good management which
had characterized the productions of
such fine peach crops in the past re-
fused to bear marketable crops
From about 1855 to 1868 even the
largest aud healthiest orchards o.
this section bore no fruit, and even
now peaches do not do well on theSe
lands that were once renowned AS
the greatest peach producing lanus
of the country. Oh the many VINO
led bv the success of the Messrs.
Rrvbold to engage in peach culture,
few if any, failed to meet with the
same experience, and for time It
was pretty generally believed that
peaches could not successfully be
grown in New Castle county. Nor
was this peculiar to Delaware. TIE
same had been the result in New
Jersey, and sections of country of
New Jersey which had grown most
| magnificent peaches failed ten or
twelve years in succession to pro-