PEACH YELLOWS. 255 



A 70-acre orchard belonging to James Hurdd, of Locust Grove, Md., and 

 now nineteen years old, has borne twelve crops at aa average yearly value of 

 about $6,0 0. 



An orchard of 2,700 trees owned by Thomas D. France, of Chestertown, 

 Md,, is said to have netted its former owner over $40,000. The trees are 

 between twenty-one and twenty-six years old and appear to be healthy enough 

 to bear peaches for another five years. 



During a series of years the tenant on the Ashcraft farm, near Magnolia, 

 Del., made enough out of his share of the peach crop to buy a valuable farm 

 of his own. The same is true of the tenant on the neighboring McBride 

 farm, and is true also of other tenant in Maryland and Delaware. 



In 1874, Dr. Henry Ridgely, of Dover, Del., paid $11,000 for the Slaughter 

 farm, southwest of Dover. This was over $70 an acre and was at that time 

 considered an exorbitant price. Between 1874 and 1887 this farm yielded 

 over $30,000 worth of peaches. The orchard also bore a large and valuable 

 crop in 1888. To say nothing of other products, this farm has paid for itself 

 in peaches alone three times over in fifteen years. On this farm in 1880 the 

 product of 16 acres of early peaches, then three years old, sold for over $1,800. 



Dr. Ridgely kindly furnished me with records from other farms which are 

 of equal interest. 



About twenty-five years ago he raised 30 acres of fine wheat, which he sold 

 for $2,800. The same year from 10 acres of Troth's early peaches he realized 

 nearly $2,600, i. «. ; over $250 per acre. 



In 1863, 1864, or 1865 (he is now uncertain which year), the peach crop 

 from his Cowgill's Corner farm sold for $4,260, i. e., $213 per acre, although 

 some peaches were lost by the equinoxial storm. 



In 1873, from 70 acres of peach orchard, he sold peaches to the amount of 

 $10,200, although the Early Yorks, which were very fine and hung full, were 

 all lost by a cloud-burst or very heavy rainfall. That year one tree bore $20 

 worth of peaches; another tree, $25 worth; and a third tree, $26.50 worth. 

 From this third tree, by mistake, the me a picked 15 baskets of green fruit 

 two weeks too soon, and this was lost. But for this accident a single tree 

 would have produced over $30 worth of fruit. 



In 1884, from 400 trees (four acres) of Fox's Seedlings, he realized $820; 

 i. e., $205 per acre. This fruit was sold in four days, the highest price paid 

 for any of it being 65 cents per basket. 



T. C. Crookshank, of Oecilton, Md., sold $1,200 worth of peaches in 1886 

 from 12 acres. 



Richard Hollyday's orchard of 30 acres in Spaniard's Neck, set in 1866, 

 netted him an average of $30 per acre for ten consecutive years. The trees 

 were dug out at the age of twenty, having borne for about sixteen years. 



From the farm of William Hudson, near Clayton, Del., $16,000 worth of 

 peaches were sold in the two years 1883 and 1884, the orchards at that time 

 containing about 100 acres. 



In 1870, according to William Parry, a Middletown, Del., peach grower, 

 formerly from New Jersey, cleared $38,000 from 400 acres of peaches. Mr. 

 Parry also declared that he could name several fruit growers who, in 1869, sold 

 from 20,000 to 60,000 baskets each, at a clear profit of from $10,000 to $30,000. 

 He is also authority for the statement that the peach blossom farm in Mary- 

 land, which sold some years prior to 1871 for $31,000, yielded the buyer the 



