36 



CULTURK OF PEACH ORCHARDS. 



Mr. Epitor — As the soasoii of tlic your is at 

 haml for traiisiilaiiting: pi-acli trees and scttinf^ out 

 orchards for the i)ruiluction of this luscious fruit, 

 whotlier for family use or the suj)|)ly of oily mar- 

 kets, it occuis to me to rcilccm tlio promise I matlc 

 you anil several of my Hichmond friends lust 

 spriiifr) and now to pive you some account of the 

 introduction and cultivation of the peacii tree in 

 Delaware. I lio this the more readily, as I may 

 impart to you some useful information, and throu^jh 

 your widely circulated journal answer many que- 

 ries i)ut to me (and whicii I have not had leisure 

 to reply to,) by several f^cntlemen in the more 

 southern and south-western states. 



Before I ilo this, ])crmit me to call your atten- 

 tion to a publication in the last January number of 

 the "Planter,'' with a view to its correction of a 

 notice on the "profits of raising fruit-' in Dela- 

 ware. " The product of one larjje peach orchard 

 in the little state of Delaware, was sold last year 

 to a company in IS'ew-Yorlw city, {or fifty thousand 

 dollars, and it is said the company realizeil six- 

 teen thousand dollars \n-oi\t by thcojieration. From 

 the same orchard fruit has been sold to the amount 

 of one hundred thousaml dollars." All of which, 

 for the sake of truth, and on behalf of our exten- 

 tive peach growers, I must protest against, and 

 l)ronounce a mistake — an over-wrought picture, 

 much too highly colored, and calculated to mislead 

 and disappoint the public mind. In contradiction 

 of the statement alluded to, I am supjiorted by Mr. 

 Isaac Reeves and Mr. Philip ReyboUl, Jr., two of 

 our largest and most successful cultivators of fruit; 

 and will only add whilst on this subject, that the 

 owners of our large orchards never lease them out, 

 but market their own crop3 by steamer or schooner 

 boats, generally chartered by the season or month; 

 and that from the profits of sale, all the expenses 

 of cultivation, i)icking, transj)ortation and the inte- 

 rest on the land, must be dciluctcil, to a large 

 amount, which will lessen very materially the nett 

 proceeds of the most extensive orchards. Though 

 in the early stages of the business the profits were 

 great, yet in the rapid increase of orchards and pro- 

 duction of fruit, they have much diminished, but 

 are still handsome to those most extensively en- 

 gaged at present. 



To Mr. Isaac Reeves, a native of New-Jersey, is 

 the whole credit due of first introducing, on a large 

 scale, the culture of the inoculated peach tree into 

 Delaware. The late Mr. Jacob Ridgvvay, of 

 Philadelphia, owning a farm near Delaware City, 

 on ihe Chesapeake and Delaware canal, was in- 

 duced by Mr. Reeves to become his partner; and 

 upon this property, in the spring of 1S32, they set 

 out the first twenty acres of inoculateii peach trees 

 ever jdanted in this state, with (he view of supply- 

 ing the Philadelphia market. They rapidly ex- 

 Leniled their plantation to about one liundrcil and 

 twenty acres — were eminently successful, a.nd one 

 year — the very best season they ever had — their 

 gross income from the sales of fruit was about six- 

 teen thousand dollars. Peaches then commanded 

 from one dollar twenty-five cents to three dollars 

 per basket, containing about three pecks each. In 

 the spring of 183f)_, the late Mf. Manuel Eyre 



anil myself followoil suit upon our " Union Farm," 

 miilway between Wilmington and Newcastle, on 

 the Delaware river, to about the extent of one hun- 

 dred and forty acres. In a year or two afterwards, 

 -Mr. Philip Rcybohl and Sons went into the busi- 

 ness — then a host of others, until now, from twenty- 

 five hundred to three thousand acres of land, in New- 

 castle county, are i)lanted with, and successfully 

 cultivated in peaches — making Delaware, though 

 Ihe smallest of the states, the largest producer of 

 this fruit. The result has been a proportionate 

 diminution of price, the average per basket, one 

 season with another, not exceeding from thirty to 

 sixty cents. In this way, Delaware has become 

 the i)rincipal supplier of the Raltimore, Philadel- 

 |>hia, Ncw-^ork, ami North River town markcis, 

 and many of our fine peaches now reach Boston. 

 The whole annual income from this branch of 

 business to the farmers of this county, may be esti- 

 mated at from one to two hundretl thousand dol- 

 lars. For so handsome an adilitional product, the 

 agriculturists of Delaware, as well as the con- 

 sumers of peaches in our vicinity, owe a debt of 

 gratitude to the originator of the culture, to whom, 

 as one, I should gladly unite in j)resenting some 

 valued and lasting memento in recognition of his 

 merit for giving a new staple to a stale ; for who 

 is a greater benefactor to mankind anil the age he 

 lives in, than he who brings into operation a new 

 branch of business, gives, by his enterprise and per- 

 severance, an impetus to agriculture, causes the 

 earth to give forth its increase, and so multiplies 

 its fruits as to bring them within the reach and 

 enjoyment of all ? 



The great improvement made in peaches within 

 the last few years in New-Jersey and Delaware, 

 consists in propagating none but the finest kintis, 

 by budding and grafting, so as to have the fruit as 

 early and us late as our latitude will admit of; the 

 earliest ripening with us from the first week in 

 August, such as Troth's Early, Early York, and 

 Early Ann, and ending in the latter part of October, 

 with Ward's Late Free, the Heath, Algiers' Win- 

 ter, &.C. I neeil not take up your time now with enu- 

 merating all the dili'erent varieties used and planted 

 out to keep up this succession — some of the princi- 

 pal ones are (in the order of enumeration) Troth's 

 Early, Early York, Early Ann, Yellow Rareripe, 

 Red Rareripe, Malacatoon, Morris' White, Old 

 fllixon, Rodman, Ward's Late Free, Maiden, I'ree 

 Smock, Late Rareripe, Heath, Algiers' Winter, 

 &c. These trees are generally obtained for about 

 six dollars per hundred, from approved nursery^ 

 men in Delaware and New-Jersey, and the rearing 

 them constitutesa itistinct business of itself. They 

 are produced by planting out the peach stones, or 

 pits, in the spring, which have been slightly 

 covered with earlh in the fall, so as to be exposed 

 to the action of the winter's frost. The sooner the 

 pits are put in the sand or earth, after the fruit is 

 matured, the better; they should never become 

 dry. The shoots from these stones are budded in 

 August of the same year, from four to six inches 

 from the ground. The ensuing spring all the first 

 years growth is cut off above where the scion has 

 taken— not, however, until it is wpU developed—' 



