Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1886-08-26
THE pEAoH MARKET.
A Poor season for thc DeAEers-The
Crop at 1ts Hight

The Wilmington peach market is de-
moralized, more 30 than at almost any
previous tiiss, apparently not from any
specific cause, but for a lack of demand.
tiWhy, / never saw peaches so dull,
said dealer ct Fourth and King streets,
s'and know no reason except that before
the season opened, it wins generally re-
ported that the peach crop was n failure,
which has scared people from even asking
the prices, much less buying any. The
truth of the matter is that there are plenty
of peaches, and the prices are no higher
than last year, in fact they are shade
lower"
Mr.. O. f. welch of Welch & Co., whole
sale grooers and commission merchants
said "We are handling very few peaches
this year, and what few we get, move very
slowly. There is very little demand for
peaches. We generally get our peaches
from the neighborhood of Bridgeville in
this State, but they have none this year.
In fact, sent q small lot of peaches
which received from Millington a few
days ago, to Harrington in this State, and
the buyer told me that if he could dispose
of them, he wonld get more"
Tho supply for the Wilmington market
is furnished by farmers from the surround
ing gneighborhood,t the most OF them coming
from the vicinity of Iron Hill, as 10 out of
about 25 wagon loads in tie market
are from that locality. Very few are
shipped by rail, which is caused by the
establishment of the exchanges. The ex.
changes force the dealers to come to the
peach country to buy; the supply is thus
equalized and the grower being no longer
at the mercy of the commission men,
realizes q steady price for his fruit and
receives cash payments. Besides, the
markets for peaches have been 30 ex-
tended that the growers are no longer
dependent on New York, Philadelphia and
Baltimore markets only. Peaches are now
beipg shipped as for west as Chicago and
also throughout Pennsylvania and New
York. Since the establishment of ths ex-
changes the grower has been realizing
almost one-third more for his fruit, while
the dealer, being required to huy in cash,
will not risk too much. The commission
men handle very few peaches, unless they
buy them outright.
The supply from careful estimates will
reach 100000 baskets, most of which
will come from Kent county, Md, +,
| county, in the vicinity of Middletown, is
1 bon1o PuhohSbs lhO illhAhpt hOW 10
| chiefly stocked with Old Mixons, although
q few Troths and Crawfords were seen
here and there.
The peaches this year, the dealers
claim, are very watery, which added to
the high price, prevents the evaporators
| from running. gentleman from Mill
ington, who was in this city Friday said
that he could not afford to run his evap-
orator, ns from an experiment, he ascer-
tanned that a basket of peaches would
only realize about two pounds of evap-
GRATED fruit.
The dealers all complain of the bad
fruit season and say they are making no
profit, but they are hopeful that next
week will show decided change for the
better. "If you only tell the people in
the papers that peaches are cheap" said
dealer, ''they will believe it, and even
if they have to pay dollar for them."
| The shipments this year have fallen
considerably below those of last season.
Whereas, up to Friday, the total ship
ments of cars to various points, had only
reached 40, the shipments up to- the same
date last year amounted to BAT car loads,
difference of 1T car loads, or almost 26
| per cent,