Milford chronicle., 1913-06-20
PRACTICING HIS own PREACHING
FRANK c. BANCROFT HAS MADE
A Success and Is Turning Again to
Peaches.

GdC1GS.
y Would I advise the farmers and fruit
/, growers Ofthe peninsula to raise peaches
), I certainly would I am doing it myself,
and if l had room for another 5O0-tree
-. orchard or additional land nearby would
= put in an orchard at once, in fact l would
p plant all that our organization here could
. look after and give the proper treatment. -
This was the opinion this week of no
less an authority on Delaware peach
growing than Frank c. Bancroft. the
present worthy master Of the Delaware
State Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, the
young leader in fruit growing who has
kept pace with general farming as well and
while he was growing on the farm was
making the farm grow with him.
Many visit the Bancroft farm, near
Dover Del, the active work and develop.
ment of which was started by the elder
Bancroft, E. H., a Delaware authority
on farming and fruit-growing, which
active work was afterward continued and
further developed by the son.
Some of the visitors go to get the en-
dorsement of Mr. Bancroft on some new
invention or some implement, but many
others go to see an experiment farm that
is not an experiment farm, but a reality,
making money for its owner year after
( year. All visitors see Mr.. Bancroft in the
working clothes of the everyday farmer
AN educated man who has studied the |
deeper things of horticulture and stock !
raising His knowledge aud his success
and the help of a splendid family have
given him a regular Taft smile
Apples predouiuate at the Bancroft farm
not little cider apples, but those which
are shipped all over this country and to
Europe, wrapped and i'll fine boxes.
Everything in the apple line at Bancroft S
is hand raised and hand picked -
Whole sections of the Reading Terminal
market in Philadelphia have been given
over to exhibiting these apples in mid
winter.
But while the Evergreen Farm, as Mr..
Bancroft's is known, is now famous for
its apples and its scientific treatment of
fruit trees for all insects and fungus dis
eases, its organized force of hand pickers
for the fancy apples that grow there vet
with all, 1t is big farm with many other
products beside apples.
Everything on the Evergreen Farm is
thoroughbred. Mr.. Bancroft, an expert
dairyman, makes his own butter for market
purposes from herd of 26 thoroughbred
Jerseys. These cows stand in comfortable
sanitary stalls, and not an animal in the
herd has ever been out on pasture on the
place Nevertheless, they are a sturdy,
handsome and even a contented bunch
of blooded cattle Everything thev eat
is inspected, which would not be possible
If they were out on pasture. Alfalfa forms
the principal feed, together with clover
hay and ensilage. The concentrates they 4
are eating this week comprise gluten
meal and bran. In extreme hot weather 4
hey will get the cooling cottonseed meal. z
Over the greensward are 1400 pure 4
white leghorn chickens with bright red /
,ombs The Wyckotf strain was used BY Il
Mr. Bancroft to start his Matching pens. r
)ut later he began to select pure stock D
rom neighbors whom he could reach in
lis automobile. While notopposed to some Y
he does very little of it, aim c
ng to bring in new cOckerels every year, p
)ut only those which he has seen before g,
latched are kept for the laying hens =
very year. A harvest of pure white eggs
S reaped at the Bancroft farm every night. ~
n the matter of fruit-growing, after G
pples come pears The pears grown -
Iere are cared for as studiously as are
pples and peaches, and there is nearly 81
lways a crop of Bartlett and Keiffer p,
'ears, with some Duchess.
But it takes a successful man, indeed v
0 raise peaches now in Delaware, and n
Ir. Bancroft had a fortune in peaches
'hen nobody else, apparently, had any. Ia
he peaches were planted in with his n
pples. ~
When 1 advise farmers and fruit Sa
rowers to raise peaches 1 speak from nv n
wn experience, but would advise that =.
My the middle season varieties be put in ri
Champions, Elbertas and Belle of Geor- r,
ia. There is no use in putting in the
lrly and late varieties. The early varie-
es, besides their sensitiveness to late
ost, would reach the market in time to
E crowded out by the early varieties from
eorgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, and
e cannot compete with them, even If we
icceed in getting a crop. Then If we
icceed in producing late varieties of
caches, they go IN and catch it-severe
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