Milford chronicle., 1923-09-07
How Fruit. Crops Establish
DeIaware's Claim To Fame
Dean McCue Of The University Of Delaware Tells How The
Diamond State Has Placed Itself Among Leading
Garden Spots Of The World


aware, is the subject matter for the
September issue of the Equitable
Trust Company Monthly. The article
is attractively illustrated with num-
ber of views of the Eden Hill tarIn' al
Dover, owned by Henry Rldgely' a
view of the agricultural experiment
station farm at Newark; one OF the
pea cannery of Greenabaum Brothers
at Seaford, and enlarged views snow
ing insects which cause destruction 10
fruit trees. The article Of Dean NC
Cues in part, follows:
Time was when Delaware was noI-
ed far and wide for its peaches. hVeH
TODAY the hukster travelling along the
residential streets of the cities seeks
IN enhance his sales by calling Del
aware peaches." If all the peaches
sold as Delaware peaches were grown
in Delaware there would scarce pc
room enough in the little Diamond
State to grow the trees necessary TO
produce the crop.
Peach Fame and Why
Delaware gained its reputation 1or
neaches back in the seventies ana
eighties when large areas of land IN
New Castle County were given over ID
growing that luscious fruit. delaware
City was once the great peach snip
ping center, the industry grauuai!y
moved southwark and ODESSA ana Mlu-
dletoWn became the great peacn cen
ters. AS time went on the peacn Srdu-
uallv treked southwark and Smyrna
Landing became a bustling shlpplng
nlace during peach harvest. BrenIoru
shinned many cars of luscious trulI 10
the cities. The territory south ana
southeast of Dover with Wyoming as
a shipping point next held the stage
Milford developed a peach lndustTy'
Rridgeville, Seaford and Georgetown
annually contributed their quota by
1900 the majority of farms IN hent
and Sussex county boasted OF thelr
neach orchards. By 1905 the INDUSTRY
began to decline. Long before this oate
Delaware City and Middletown drltted
ont of the peach game and 1867 ana
3 witnessed the last struggles OF Ine
Smyrna-Brenford districts. Inc peaGn
orchards began to disappear from tne
farms of Kent and Sussex. Iouay Only
the Dover-Wyoming district anu tne
Rridgeyille districts are still shlpplnS
neaches in great quantities. The peach
has disappeared as a general larIn
crop and the industry is in the nanus
of a few specialists as compared 10 Tue
great number of farmers who gre" tne
Oueen of fruits thirty or twenty years
ago. ,,.o or
There must have been a cause OF
ooreas for such an evolution in peach
growing in Delaware. These causes
can briefly be named as YelloWs, Lit
tle Peach, San Jose Scale, Scap anu
Brown Rot.
~YeIlOWs" Make Invasion
In the early days of peach growing
about all that seemed necessary "
grow a crop of peaches was to plant
an orchard, give it fair cultivation
and then sit on the fence and Watch
the fruit grow until harvest tllne'
About 1870 the yellows began to make
its appearance in New Castle county.
The disease spread rapidly and there
seemed to be no way to compat IT,
Trees were dying annually by tne null
dreds and gradually the industry re-
treated southwark before the olsease'
The decline of the peach industry IN
New Castle county may be laid at tne
doors of the yellows. About l9OO the
San lose scale made its appearance
over the entire state and thousands OF
trees were killed and hundreds OF or
chards were pulled out before rem
edv was discovered and put into prac-
tice. A few years later brown rot ana
scab began to make serious mroads
on the fruit. The growers time anu
time again had the experience Oh
a fine crop of luscious peach-
es only to have them rot on the trees
at harvest time. 1t was not untll
about 1909 and 10 that spraying TO
control brown rot and scab began TO
he a common practice. In the mean
time few of the many who had 1orni-
erly grown peaches were WlllinS u
spray for scab and brown rot. Better |
packing methods became necessary 10
meet market demands. Many drlfted
out of peach growing because they
were unwilling to meet market de-
mands. Varieties also have changed
during the past thirty years. When
Delaware City and Middletown were
in their prime as peach growing CEN
ters, Crawfords, Mamie Ross, Moors
Favorite and other varieties OF the
Persian type were grown. All of these
we're very susceptible to yelloWs ana
)ther peach diseases. Elberta, Carmen
Ind Belle of Georgia came in to take
their place. Today the principal va
rieties grown are Elberta, Belle, Car
men and Hale.
Apple Industry Arrives
While the peach was occupying the
center of the fruit growing stage a
eW men were quietly experimenting
n growing apples. The late ]. G.
Brown of Wyoming may be called the
ather of Delaware's apple industry. A
ew men such as S. H. Derby, e. II.
Bancroft and F. M. Soper got into the
,ame and demonstrated that CONNER
,ial apple growing was a profitable
industry for Delaware. In 1900 these
hree men were the principal apple
growers of Delaware. Today the apple
growers name in Delaware is legion.
1t first attention was given mostly to
ate fall and winter varieties but about
904-08 it was demonstrated that early
pples such as Yellow Transparent,
Early Ripe and Williams were money J