Smyrna times., 1923-09-12
APPLES FAST BECOMIHG AS
FAMOUS AS DELAWARE PEACH
DEAN NC CUE OF UNIVERSITY
OF DELAWARE GIVES ANALYSIS
Farmers Have Abandoned Former
Crop for More Profitable Early Var
ieties-Many Apple Orchards

All interesting anu instructive arCl-
Gle on Delaware, the Garden State"
written by Dean C. A. McCue, direc-
tor of the Agricultural Experiment
Station of the University of Della
ware, appears in the monthly issue Of
the Equitable Monthly. The article
details the natural advantages of the
State and the development of its veg
etable and fruit resources. In part,
Dean McCue states: "Time was when
Delaware was noted far and wide for
its peaches. Even today the huckster
travelling along the residential streets
of the cities seeks to enhance his
sales by calling Delaware peaches"
If all the peaches sold as Delaware
peaches were grown in Delaware
there would scarcely be room enough
in the little Diamond State to grow
the trees necessary to produce the
crop. Delaware City was once the
great peach shipping center, the in
dustry gradually moved southwark
and Odessa and Middletown became
the great peach centers. AS time
went on the peach gradually treked
southwark and Smyrna Landing be-
came bustling shipping place during
peach harvest. Brenford shipped
many cars of luscious fruit to the
cities. The territory south and south
east of Dover with Wyoming as a
shipping point next held the stage.
Milford developed a peach industry.
Bridgeville, Seaford and Georgetown
annually contributed their quota. By
1900 the majority of farms in Kent
and Sussex counties boasted of their
peach orchards. By 1905 the indus
try began to decline. Long befor this
date Delaware City and Middletown
drifted out of the peach game and
1867 and s witnessed the last strug-
giles of the Smyrna-Brenford districts.
The peach orchards began to disap-
pear from the farms of Kent and Sus-
sex. Today only the Dover Wyoming
district and the Bridgeville districts
are still shipping peaches in great
quantities. The peach has disappear
ed as a general farm crop and the in
dustry is in the hands of few spec
ialists as compared to the great num-
ber of farmers who grew the queen
of fruits thirty or twenty years ago.
Disease Causes Ruin to Peaches
"There must have been a cause or
causes for such an evolution in peach
growing in Delaware. These causes
can briefly be named as .Yellows, Lit
tie Peach, San Jose Scale, Scab and
Brown Rot. While the peach was oc-
cupying the center of the fruit grow
ing stage, few men were quietly ex-
perimenting in growing apples. The
late j. G. Brown, of Wyoming may
be called the father of Delaware's ap-
pie industry. A few men such as S
H. Derby, E. H. Bancroft and F. M
Soper, got into the game and dem
onstrated that commercial apple
growing was a profitable industry fol
Delaware. In 1900 these three mer
were the principal apple growers o.
Delaware. Today the apple grower!
name in Delaware is legion. At first
attention was given mostly to late fal
and winter varieties, but about 1904
O8 it was demonstrated that early ap
pies such as Yellow Transparent
Early Ripe and Williams, were mon
ey-makers for their growers. Fror
1908 on, thousands of apple tree
were set, and many peach grower
abandoned the peach for apple. TIL
early apple industry has grown b
leaps and bounds, and today, Dela
ware ships each week of the Earl
Apple season about one-fourth Of ii
carloads of early apples shipped tn;
week in the United States. The al
pie growers early in the game learnt
that apples could not be grown hal
hazardly. The Experiment Static
demonstrated to them that insect al
diseases could be controlled by spra
re ing.
al Greatest in Apples
Delaware today has more apr
trees per square mile Of her terrific
than any other State in the UniC
% Some twenty-five or thirty years a
a young preacher demonstrated