Daily Republican., 1886-06-01


Delaware's annual peach scare, which
Is always due late IN the Spring OF
Early in the Summer, has arrived OF
: time. All peachdom is shaking with
! what to the uninitiAted Ia nameles
| dread, but what some wicked people
sSy is simply bit of diplomacy &c
keep prices up as long Us possible after
the fruit begins TO so TO market. There
are always two or three Ecares before
! The big one in early SuGlmer. There
was one this year as far oack as Janu'
AIRY, when the tail end OF the Mime,
sofa blizzard swept uown through the
region between the bays aud frcze even
| the cypress swAmps Of Sussex to the
bottom. Then it was stated that the
young twigs and boughs were 30 BADLY
frozen, many OF them having been
, scared az by lightning, that they would
{ not live. Spring came, and the bad
effects Of the freeze did not show.
When the buds swelled they showed
every sign of healthfulness, and later
on the great orchards from the Della
ware to the Chesapeake looked like a
ca OF billowy bloom. In fact, 30 COW
cred with blossoms were the trees that
I l. looB cd as If the cold snap had been q
benefit to the orchards.
Within short time past q startling
story has rvn Through the land of the
Lerry and peach to the effect that q
mysterious worm had begun its ravages
u on the infant fruit. The story started
at Milford and ran north and south and
asst and west. The worm was a very
email affair 70 create such stir, al
most as fine as q strand of spun silk
and very BLACK, and the enterprising
grower who made the discovery report
ed that 1t WAS busily st work boring
directly through the heart OF the grow
Tug peach and utterly destroying it's
lite.
This started other growers looking for
the small eaemy. Some say they found
it without trouble OJhera we're not so
SURF. Still others reported that they
could 6ud nothing Of the kind, and that
tho Milford man Was an alarmist.
Finally every body decided that nothing
could 30 done until after the June fall,
and between now aud then the owners
OF the millions of capital invested in
the peach growing and evaporaling In.
dustry will be resting uneasily through
b pc aud fear.
The June fall will occur during the
next week or 30. 1t is so called becauee
then the imperfect fruit shat can rot
mature let's 70 its hold and falls TO the
ground. By the June fall the grower
can almost infallibly estimate his crop.
10 Is almost invariably the case Sha. tho
fruit thai does not drop then will re-
main 0u Ihe Tree and ripen. II the ra.
wages OF che "black worm" are as ex.
tcuatve as has been represented the June
tsli vi Ge very heavy aud the panin-
sular peach kings will have good rea
son to look blue.
Reliable growers who have no inter-
est in incorporating the situation say
the "blACk worm" Is largely . myth.
They also ssy that the crop of 1856 will
b very large one. The srees the pen.
nsula over are loaded with infant
fruit, and while much of it does not
seem to be healthy still the trees can
stand large percentage of falling fruit
aud yield a magnificent harvest. A
prominent grower from near Smyrna,
Del, WAS ia the city yesterday and wac
enthusiastic upon the situation He|
declared emphatically that even the
wild cherry trees along HIS line fences
were loaded with young peaches.