Smyrna times., 1901-08-07
INTEREST NOW CENTERED
IN THE DELAWARE PEACH
DELAWARE COMMISSION MAN PUTS TOTAL
YIELD AT 100000 BASKETS.
Believes That There Will Be Finer Peaches
and Larger Quantity of Them and
Higher Prices Will Prevail.

and Larger Quantity of Them and
Higher Prices Will Prevail
"The peach crop this season" says
Delaware commission man, sis not as
large by One-haf as the crop of last
year, although there will be enough to
meet the general demand. The Della.
ware railroad makes a careful state
ment each year of the probable yield.
Special Agent 1. n. Mills places this
years yield in the sections reached by
the Delaware road and its branches at
100000 baskets.
"The estimate of last years crop was
1900, 600 baskets, so it will be seen
that the crop this year under the most
favorable conditions, will not be over
a half crop, but better prices will pre-
vail, and the grower will have a little
chance to make money out of his crop
this year. The number of trees on the
Peninsula has increased few thou
sand by the setting out of new Or
chards, and the increase would have
been heavy were it not for the fact that
hundreds of orchards have been pulled
up. The peaches this year, from pres
ent indications, will be of good size
and quality. In some sections, where
the trees are usually full, the growers
are thinning them-something that has
never been done before. And this
will no doubt add much to the size and
flavor of the fruit.
ga generation ago the Delaware and
Maryland Peninsula was the centre of
the peach-growing industry of the
world. 1t no longer has that distinc-
tion. The peach tree exhausts the soil
so thoroughly that new orchards will
not thrive where the old ones stood.
In addition, the ''yellows," San Jose
scale and other pests have devastated
thousands upon thousands of trees and
have so thoroughly discouraged the
peach growers that they have not set
out orchards upon extensive scale, as
formerly. In other sections of the
country it has been found that peaches
can be grown with profit, and with the
result that they are about as universal
a crop as corn and wheat.
'The total yield of peaches this year,
think, will be 10000 The pro-
longed drouth in some parts of the
State has affected it somewhat, but not
to any great extent, and the hot wealth
y----------s---l e.. A.
6ath auts1hl%aiia& y 81 & summer in developing the
fruit.
''Finer peaches and larger quantity
of them to the acre are being produced
every year, and this is due not only to
careful tillage and cultivation, but also
to thinning of the fruit where it first
appears on the trees. The old-fash-
ioned peach grower would have
thought it sheer lunacy to cut off
three fourths of the peaches just as
they were beginning to develop. Yet
it is by just that method that more
bushels of peaches are now being pro-
duced from the trees than they would
bear if they were not interfered with,
and the fruit is improved and brings
a higher price"
Large Demand for Baskets.
Former Sheriff John B. Wharton,
who is interested in the Diamond Trav
and Basket Company, which is run
ming its plant at Frankford at full
blast, reports a tremendous demand
for peach baskets and the new peach
carriers by the fruit growers of lower
Delaware, indicating that they expect
the busiest month of the year to come
with the advent of ripe Delaware
peaches this week.
The Bradford Murphy factory in
Dover is also running into the night to
supply its orders. Sheriff Wharton
has distributed nearly 10000 baskets a
week among the Kent county fruit
growers. 1t is estimated that upwards
OF 100000 peach baskets have been
made IN Delaware factories this year.
1t is predicted that the quality of the
peaches will improve materially as the
season progresses and that Delaware
will this year send out the finest peach-
es in the world from her peach belt.