Milford chronicle., 1889-11-01

RA@AAAE AAoA~S AA~ bANANAAhE VI AAN mp go
pensive. Low growing trees give the profit
able crops, and are less liable to breakage
from high winds. All large orchards should
have broader spaces, Of say twenty-five feet,
left between every tenth row to allow the
ready passage of the fruit wagon in gather
ing the crops. Ought any crops to be grown
in the peach orchard?
In this theory is opposed to the general
practice. Coru growing in the young orchard
insures an amount of cultivation for the first
year, that perhaps offsets all its disadvau-
tages, but corn in later years handicaps the
enterprise of peach growing for profit.
Where tomato growing can be done with any
profit in itself, can see no injury it has done
in an orchard of any age, ,supposing of course
that the crop is produced by commercial
fertilizers and not by stable manure. find
the experience with stable manures in a
psach orchard at any stage ofgrowth fraught
with too many risks to be hazarded. If
sweet pototoes can be successfully grown
without the spawning ferment Of stable ma
nure, this crop NAV find more favor in the
future as a by-crop of the on-coming peach
orchard think that the sonp bean or the
COW pea might be made a satisfactory crop
in such situation.
Theory, for which we have no practice to
support US indicates that tobacco growing
ought to accompany peach growing To-
bacco is bane Of the aphis that we find
such curse at every stage of the peach en-
terprise. The continual presence of these
little pests upon the rootlets and young
wood of the peach weakens the tree against
frost and disease. Nurserymen seek relief
by the free use Of tobacco juice spTinkled on
the affected trees, and the question naturally
recurs, would tobacco growing in the land
reduce to any perceptble degree the exis-
tence of the peach apheasl"
The fact, that every year is not peach
year, and that farming is not so profitable as
to afford too much cultivation where no crop
is; prompts the earnest inquiry 'What by
crops may we grow in the peach orchard1''
Berries and small fruits have, thanks to
our market and transportation lines, lost all
their value for this purpose in this locality.
With the orchard at full bearing age, so
that the spaces between trees are occupied
by the branches. there is neither space nor
need for other crop on the land. One plow
ing, very shallow, in the fall or late spring,
and frequent cultivating from spring till the
fruit droops the limbs in June, accompanied
with the application of about 900 pounds of
raw-bone at the FIRST cultivation of spring,
seems to combine the practice of most sue
cessful growers.
For shipping, or for whatever purpose in
tended, peaches are gathered now more
evenly ripe than in former years. A peach
in which the juices have naturally matured
has more sugar for its preservation than has
the unyielding, grass-green specimens that
were formerly hastened into the market.
When the light colored side has the shade
ofthe maiden's cheek. and the fruit is yet
firm, it is ready for picking and leaves the
stem readily.
Asserting can be most readily and rapidly
done by an expert in the wagon driving
from point to point through the orchard in
proximity to the piSkers Marketing the
fruit Here we have drifted from our moor
ings. We have sold our birth-right for
mess of pottage Our opportunity is gone
We have been turned back TO wander, pos
sibIy forty years, possibly more, in the will
derness of "no system, where the miasma
of doubt and uncertainty is paralyzing ef
fort
Commission business has been destroyed
as a means for any general distribution of
large crops of peaches. Buyers compelled
to purchase in local markets have chances
all against them if they pay above medium
figures for their fruit. Competition among
purchasers has been most completely divi-
ded, and competition among growers inten-
sifed
Is there any port into which we can har-
bor our barque until this storm of adverse
circumstances passes by?
To re-mobilize the Fruit Exchange in this
generation is probably impossible To re-
organize it as a corporation, conducted upon
corporation principles is its only road to
existence again; and the word corporation
has been so abused before the people that
Al1 use - ouAANAIhA ~ AuEln AuEAE
best interests in this matter.
With the furnaces rusting down in our
evsporators for lack Of remunerative prices
for evaporated peaches, and our depot agents
the sole arbiters of our fortunes can we risk
to put our vessel before the storm and push
for the open sea? 1t does no good now to
reiterate. I'VE told you so" Fruit grow
ers were not wsntinRa few men wise enough
to foresee the folly VT that policy which has
brought this crisis. Step by step they ar
gued, pleaded, contended, scoided, only to
6nd that local jealousies were too great for
the maintenance of the Delaware Fruit Ex-
change. Out ofits wreck there promises to
be nothing left, not even so much as may
build yawl with which to reach the near
est headland
What can we do? May we not do this, at
least till time and circumstances demonstrate |
that the storm is past may not each preduc |
ing center seek some suburb of a large city |
or some manufacturing town which for a |
regular supply of best fruit Will afford re-
munerative figures
The details ofsuch an effort would require |
some elaboration, and ifthe effort is made,
it seems that it would be necessary to know
in advance that full carloads may be regu.
larly had.
Graded fruit and proper distribution are |
the two quantities that ought to be known to
the grower, and knowing these, he ought to
solve this "rule of three" problem with
satisfaction to all concerned.
DISCUSSION
Rev. J. S. Willis don't think there is any
question of the ADVANTAGE in oroV,ine torna-