The daily gazette., 1879-02-04
DELAWARE PEACH GROWERS

Taken to get one ofheir Greatest Hin
drances, High Freight Charges, Re
mored-7he Present Effort made be-
fore the General Assembiy.
Special Correspondence OF the Gazette.
DOVER, DEL, Feb. 3, 1S79.-John NJ.
Clayton used 10 say that he carried Del
aware in his breeches pocket. lie never
said this to anyone except his confiden-
tial friends and then he always added
with a chuckle, sand if it wasn't for her
peach brandy, she wouldn't be worth the
carrying" That was twoscore years ago
and then peaches we're only grown to
satisfy the epicural tas es of the growers
themselves. Those were the halcyon
days, when what man male was his
own, and he was able TO rrgale his friends
with bottled streaks of homemade light
ming, without the tax gatherers levying a
revenue upon it. Most of the peaches
grew wild along the fences and lanes.-
Scarcely more thantwo or three orchards
of any dimensions could be found from
the Brandywine to the Breakwater. and
the people plodded on in the industrious
sameness OF their course, without ever
thinking that in the culture of the peach,
was great source of profit.
| can't tell the exact date at which
the first peaches were grown for market.
The first beginning, however, was made
by the Ridgelys and Reeves, of Delaware
City, about forty years ago. The venture
was a success. The trees bore abundantly
and the prizes realized were good. Re, :
bold, near the same place, soon followed
and on larger scale. lie planted inl-
mense orchards and made proportionate-
ly large arrangements for carrying on the
industry. FOR the purpose of transpor-
tation, he built steamers and kept several
running regularly to Philadelphia during
the peach season. Al times during the
summer, before the people grew to ap-
pieciate the delicacy of peaches, the
market would become overstocked. On
such occasions, instead of selling at a
very low price, he would run his boat
out into the middle of the Delaware and
have his hands throw the fruit overheard.
As time progressed the new industry be-
came entered into more generally. Henry
Todd and Gouverneur Emerson, of
Dover, followed the example of the
Ridgelys, Reeves and Reynolds, of
DE aware City, and after short season
of hesitancy, john Reed, of Fredelca
planted big orchard, and afterwards a
nursery. From 1910 to 1865 the number
of orchards increased with a slowne S
that is surprising to a person Who looks
back from this day. The people were
either slow of perception or fearful of
some imaginary ri>k that might lay hid
den in the enterprise. But the few who
had planted orchards had taken the tide
at the flood and experiencing a season of
0ountiful prosperity. BY this time, how
ever, there were quite large number OF
widely scattered orchards, and after that
the industry extended like wildfire and
there was scarcely farmer in the State
that did not plant several thousand trees.
BY 1866 the business was full and run
ming over. The whole Peninsula became
looked on by outsiders as one vast peach
orchard; and every summer when the
-dnny side of the peach began to turn
red, it began to be the custom with many
of the lower classes to wend their way
down INTO the Peninsula. Here they
were sure to find a livelihood for month
or two picking the fruit, aud thus earned
for themselves the title of "pcach
plucks.'
There is an area of six hundred square
miles in the pocket, between the bays,
known as the Delaware Peninsula. OF
tins fifty thousand acres of the best land
is covered with peach orchards. Every
spring over five million peach trees fling
the fragrance oftheir b ooln OH the breeze.
Represent these $4,000 acres in money
at the rate OF tftv dollars an are. and
you have 81, 500 600.
To this add the sum invested in impli-
ments used for getting the peaches ready
[, r market, which is $780, 900, and that
makes the sum OF ~. 10000. You may
place the working capita safely at Sl,l70,-
100; which, added t. lh- sum alrt ady
gwen, and the whole amount is S3 Y20,
600. These ii ure, have been given to
me by one of the pea h pioneers of III.
Peninsula, and are said to he more likely
uelow the exact sum than over il. 1t
would be better for the p opl. OF Della.
ware and the Eastern Shore if til, y
would look at the matter of peach cul-
lure in the above light. tha' they may
s. just what interest they have in the
matter.
The boast made by our people that the
peach interest gives the peninsula chaia
ter to the wide reputation OF bein the
great orchard of the word, is not a
groundless one. So vast is the industry
and So general the culture Of peaches the
peninsula over, h It the boast may be
taken as wholly proper and correct.
Whether it is likely to become more ex-
tensive, whether it will hold its own, or
whether it is doomed to eventually die
is most unanswerable. Tie peach grow
ers have had much to fight AGAINST, and
OF late years have met with hinderances
tina. have greatly injured the business.
Aud the main causr,a in other bl = ches,
is over production, to which may be
added high freight cnarge'. "There is,
OF course, room at the top but then there
Is difficulty in the way by whi h the
stop must be reached. The qnan ity
OF fruit now grown is SO great that When
forced upon the ma ket there is glui,
and the pric a. once fell 80 low
that the cost oflransp ration far exceeds
the sum received. Hal freight CHARGES
been low money would have Ueen made
even curing the years that the prices
were lowest. If markets further away
than those now reached could be opened
a ready sale could be found Tor ali lh,
peaches the peninsula can produce, bu
this is prevented by the high fieigh
| 81 arpes