Smyrna times., 1877-08-22
The History of Peaches in Delaware.

Among the first who looked to Delaware
as promising field for the cultivation of
peaches was Mr.. Ridgeway, an eminent
Philadelphia merchant. Securing the aid
OF successful New Jersey grower named
Reeves, together they purchased tract of
land on the Delaware river, just below
Delaware City, upon which they planted
about four thousand trees. At that time
this was looked upon as an immense
orchard. They received profitable return
from their investment, but Mr.. Ridgeway
was far advanced in years and had already
amassed great fortune and did not push
the cultivation of peaches to any great ex-
tent and Mr.. Reeves means did not permit
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 experiments an enter
prising Pennsylvania, Major Reybold, well
advanced in life and in good financial cir
cumstances. He had always been a keen
speculator, and had made a small fortune
as contractor, in digging section of the
Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. lie
readily learned the lesson which Messrs.
Ridgeway and Reeves experiment taught
and inducing his sons, John, Barney, Will
liam, Philip, Clayton and Anthony, to
purchase lands, which at that time were
selling at very low prices, they all engaged
III the cultivation of peaches. In a few
years in the markets of Philadelphia, Balti-
more, New York and Boston, the names of
Reybold and peaches seemed to be almost
synonymous terms. The Messrs. Reybold
had in the aggregate 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 in.
structcd their agents in New York and
Philadelphia to throw all the fruit into the
river which they could not sell above Ger,
tain prices, and on one memorable occasion
in New York, when the Moaotainccr arrived
late one Saturday at that port, the peach
buyers formed a combination bv which
they expected to buy the fruit at very low
prices. knowing that the steamer would be
fully loaded. The Major demanded
twenty-five cents a basket; the buyers
offered fifteen. Neither side would Weld.
The Nountaineer drew out into the stream,
and the Major dumped his whole cargo
into the Hudson.
After engaging most successfully in the
cultivation of peaches around Delaware
City for upwards Of fifteen years, 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 charac.
terized the productions of such fine crops
in the past refused to bear marketable
crops. From about 1856 to 1868 even the
largest and healthiest orchards of this
section bore no fruit, and even now peaches
do not do well on those lands that once
were renowned as the greatest peach-pro-
ducing lands Of the country. Of the many
who, led by the success of the Messrs. Rev
bold to engage in peach culture, few, if
any, failed to meet with the same ex.
perience, and for time it was pretty
believed that peaches could not
successfully be grown in New Castle county.
Nor was this peculiar to Delaware. The
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
produce any marketable peaches, and even
now none but the late varieties thrive and
do we'll in that State.
IMMENSE PROFITS DURING THE WAR.
After several years, during which time
peach culture was but of small Importance.
the success of the Messrs. Vandegrift on
small farms on the south side of st. Angus.
tine creek-a small stream emptying into
the Delaware river at a point about five
miles below Delaware City-in producing a
of good crops attracted the at.
tention of the neighboring land owners
and soon nearly every land owner in st.
Georges Hundred planted more or less
largely with peaches. From a small
of not exceeding two thousand
trees Mr.. NJ. Vandegrift sold during the
of lS61.62.63.64 and 65 upwards O.
two thousand baskets of fruit annually. A.
prices ranging from three dollars down to
one dollar and a-half per basket, and he
realized profit of upwards of twenty
thousand dollars for the sale of peaches
from this small orchard. His success
demonstrated the fact that at least lands
upon which peach trees had not already
been grown could be generally relied upon
to produce peaches.
One farmer made in 1868, clear of all
expenses, sixteen hundred dollars from
four acres of land. Another man, a laborer. |
who by thrift contrived to purchase a little
place of ten acres, for which he paid, for
house and land, about six hundred dollars.
Dlanted fha land In ,,eaoho. o,,I /