Middletown transcript., 1881-07-01
Mr.. Townsend on Peaches.

MIR, EDITOR In your last issue [
see a communication from Mr.. John
Rutter, who put out a book on peach
growing, and who contends that five
southwestern counties of Pennsylvania
are as suitably situated to grow peaches
| for profit as this Peninsula but so far
yet, that book Of advice to Pennsylvania
farmers is not in the least considered
advantageous. No Pennsylvania farm
ers that | have heard Of have given up
raising grain and grazing to try to grow
peaches !; prefering to buy peaches from
| Delaware and Maryland. Rutter now
says he has found some peaches, not
however in southern Pennsylvania, but
in LycOming county, at the foot of the
Allegheny mountains, l suppose in
some gulch or spur of the mountain
protected from the cold He says he
has found thirty Oh forty peach trees
with peaches on them, and has sent a
sprig to the TRANSCRIPT. l have some
limbs Of trees, split at the butt, enough
to allow the top to lay on the ground.
and several Of these limbs became COW
cred with snow before the cold weather
and remained covered through the win
ter. The snow protected the buds.
they blossomed, and now have peaches
Oh them, and these trees, spoken of
in nLycoming county, have either beenina
very warm place where the thermometer
did not go below zero, or else they were
covered with snow to depth of ten or
fifteen feet before the cold weather set
in. Ninety-nine persons out of a hun
dred in Delaware, think, believe what |
| stated, that zero was too cold for |
peach buds; that four OF five below
would kill the buds 4; and that eight to |
twelve would kill many peach trees. |
This has come to pass during the late
winter Mr.. Rutter's labored argument |
to try to account for the killing of Del
subterfuge. Every grower here will |
bear evidence that peach buds in 1890
had sufficient dampness in August and |
September to make them perfect. Oc- |
tOber was moderate and ripened the |
buds to perfection. November came in
cold and increased in c0ldneSs. gradu- |
ally. On the twenty-third day Of No |
vember | had load of ice cut on the |
mill pond, three and a quarter inches |
thick, and put it in place covered with
straw, and it lasted all winter. The /
weather got colder and colder so that
some farmers did not finish husking corn. |
and there was no thaws. All old persons
here will agreethat it was the most regu.
larly cold winter they ever saw. The
mill pond here never thawed out until
the first of April, SO the peach buds en-
tered the winter in a very small torpid
state, and in good condition. and the
last few days Of December killed all ex-
cept a few under the snow line. There
is small strip of country within ten
or twelve miles west of me, where there
are a few peaches. There the mercury
did not go so low. 1t is comparatively
a small spot, and some Of it not nearer
to water, than four miles but sheltered
in some places by large timber. No
peach trees can stand such cold as Won
talk of thirty degrees below zero). and
there is not grower in Delaware that
will believe it. Pennsylvania is no
more fit to raise peaches than Delaware
is to grow cotton. You cannot make
any more converts among the Pennsyl-
vania farmers than you can in Della
ware. Last winter has fully proved
what ! stated last December
SAMUEL TOWNSEND.
TOWnsRnd June 90 1891