PEACH YELLOWS. 257 



In Spaniard's Neck the well established peach farms are worth from $70 

 to ^100 per acre. Land at some distance from the river and not well adapted 

 to peaches is worth much less. 



The peach farm now occupied by William Hudson, at Clayton, Del., con- 

 tains 223 acres, and was bought in 1883 at $130 per acre, 100 acres being in 

 bearing orchard. 



Good peach farms, situated within a few miles of Dover, are worth from 

 ^75 to *100 per acre. A few might be bought as low as $50 or 860. 



Peach farms in the vicinity of Magnolia are worth from $75 to $100 per 

 acre. 



DEPRECIATION OF REAL ESTATE DUE TO YELLOWS. 



This has been marked in some sections. Keal estate is undoubtedly dull 

 the country over, owing to various causes ; but that there has been a marked 

 depreciation in values in upper Maryland and Delaware, due solely to the 

 ravages of yellows, can not be denied. It is too patent. In places where the 

 disease has prevailed most destructively it would now be hard to sell a peach 

 farm at any price. Buyers do not care to invest ; the risk is too great. Owing 

 to the prevalence of this disease many farms will not now sell for over one- 

 half or two-thirds as much as they would have brought five years ago. In 

 sections where yellows has entirely destroyed the orchards or rendered peach 

 growing precarious and unprofitable, farms are now worth on an average 

 about one-half what ihey were formerly. 



Farms about Middletown, Townsend, McDonough and Odessa are now 

 worth from $50 to $80 per acre. Fifteen or twenty years ago, when peach 

 growing was at its height in this section, real estate brought fabulous prices, 

 but usually paid for itself in peaches within a few years. 



In October, 1866, near McDonough, 170 acres of poor land, without fences, 

 brought $120 an acre at public sale. 



In 1867 Mr. 0. W. Karsner's farm of 300 acres, near McDonough. was 

 assessed at $150, and valued by some at $250 per acre. This farm was bought 

 in 1832 for $14 per acre. 



In 1867 a farm of 150 acres, two miles east of Odessa, sold for $199 an 

 acre, and at that time the upland portion (150 acres) of Mr. E. C. Fenni- 

 more's farm would undoubtedly have sold for over $300 per acre. This farm, 

 lying on Delaware river, contains 800 acres, 650 being marsh and the rest 

 sandy upland with red clay subsoil. It was sold in 1832 as part of a tract of 

 2,800 acres for 93 cents an acre, and again in 1853 to Mr. Fennimore, when 

 its value for peach growing was understood, for $25 an acre, marsh and all. 



In 1874 tlie peach farm of Mr. Serrick Shallcross, near Middletown, con- 

 taining over 1,000 acres, was valued at $150 per acre. 



At about the same time Mr. Shallcross bought three farms to put into 

 peaches, paying $156, $127, and $120 per acre. A.t that time, about Middle- 

 town and McDonough, land of any sort suitable for peaches sold readily, 

 even without buildings, at from $100 to $125 per acre. 



The depression of real estate values in Berrien county, Mich., subsequent 

 to the loss of the orchards was also very great, and many persons were finan- 

 cially ruined, but I have not enough data to render it worth while to con- 

 sider it at length. During the flush peach times real estate in southwest 

 Michigan changed hands at prices fully equal to those which prevailed in 

 Delaware. 



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