Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-03-30
FRUIT PROSPECTS
BLICHTED BY SECOND
FREEZE LAST NIGHT
Continued from page 1

! Prof c. A. McCue, dean of the agri-
| cultural department of the University
J Of Delaware. and in charge of the ex-
periment station at Newark. said this
morning that he did not see that any
of the fruit could come through after
the freeze and frost of last night and
this morping. He had news, he said.
from other sections of the State and
down the peninsula. that all fruit and
carly vegetables were killed. Some or
charciists, he said. are already prepar-
ing To" cultivate the ground covered by
their orchards. having abandoned all
hope for fruit.
Prof. MrCue said there might possibly
be some salvage. but il doesn't look
encouraging now. The temperature
went to 30 or lower in the vicinity of
Newark and there was heavy frost.
Extent of the loss.
II the fears of the orchardists are
fully realized. said Prof. McCue, il will
mean a loss of between 100000 and
So, ,00O. .000 Kent county viii suffer
greatest. because of the larger fruit
interests there, and the damage i'm that
county may go as high as $4,000. 900.
An estimated loss of $500, 900 in Sussex
and s400, 900 in rural New Castle would
bring the total loss in the State to
SO, 200 900.
About the only hope left for fruit in
Delaware t.iis year is in some varieties
of the apples. which may have escaped
the freeze. Peaches, plums and pears.
most orchardists say appear to be a
total loss.
Besides the loss to the orchardtsts.
tho IA aiy1tr,N of tho fruit Crnn will mean
a considerable loss to those who were
expecting employment in the harvest
ing of fruit II is said the basket fac
tories. near Laurel. may have to close.
as there will be no demand for their
product.
Late reports from orchariists in Sus-
sex county to the Farm Bureau at
Georgetown. found that early reports
had been entirely too optimistic, and
that despite the heavy winds OF last
night the rain had frozen in the bios
SONS Of the fruit. Agents of the big
commercial orchards reported late this
afternoon that peaches were entirely
killed as were the pears. But that
carly apples were about ninety per cent
killed and late apples about eighty per
cent killed. Strawberries suffered but
little damage. These reports were Of |
hcial.
Severe losses were suffered by the |
fruit growers around Seaford.. Only |
the slightest hope is held out for any |
kind of a crop of fruit Peach. apple |
pear cherry. ounce. plum. in fact |
everything in the fruit line suffered |
Ice formed during the night and the /
hail cut the trees badly in many places. /
Very early vegetables. such as lettuce.
10 .afp haf NYss 30
main part Of the vegetables raised in
this section are not up yet.
Josiah Marvel. one Of the owners of
the Delaware Apple Co, which has
orchards near Rridgeville with about
: 5000 trees. said this morning they had
no reports from their orchards. and /
could make no estimate Of the damage
done. II is expected that report will /
Inc made by experts who are making
an investigation of the extent OF the
damage
J. A. Frear. near Dover states that
'.eaches and early apples are practically
III dead. and there is some apprehen-
.un about strawberries
At the Henry Ridgely farm near Do
yer. reports show that peaches are gone /
nd that no more damage could be done
than was done Monday night
+. c. Brancroft feels that additional
damage was done by last nights frost
and that while il is hard TO estimate
just what percentage Of fruit is killed. /
indications point 10 the strong presump- |
ti0n that the larger percentage has been
killed
At the Frank T. Maloney farm, ad- /
Joining the large Cooper and Terry
orchards. they express the belief that |
not much more damage has been done
than on Monday night
Grapes are about one-haf 10 three I
quarters killed.