INTRODUCTION. 17 



With an area of six hundred square miles, or three 

 hundred and eighty-four thousand acres, she will send to 

 market the present season, 1869, about one million 

 baskets. Six years later she more than doubled this. 

 The estimate made for her by the Peninsula Fruit 

 Growers' Association) on the 18th of May, 1869, was six 

 hundred and twenty-five thousand baskets ; but now, 

 August 12th, in the midst of the picking season, it is 

 manifest that that estimate is much too low. It is here 

 the largest orchards, as well as the finest fruit, are found. 

 One planter, within a short distance of Dover, has six 

 hundred acres of peach orchard. Many others have from 

 ten to twenty thousand trees, and often ship from ten to 

 fifteen hundred baskets a day. 



In New Castle County, adjoining, there are some very 

 fine orchards, and great and special care is taken in their 

 cultivation. Fine, erect trees, head rows nicely trimmed, 

 and a smooth, clean surface, attest the taste and care of 

 their proprietors. It is a pleasure to look at them. But 

 the soil is a little too heavy, and the climate a shade colder 

 than in Kent ; and, consequently, the peaches do not come 

 in so early, crops oftener miss, and the cultivation is not 

 quite so much a success. The three great shipping points 

 of this county are Odessa, Middletown, and Townsend, 

 from all of which large quantities of beautiful and delL 

 cious fruit are shipped. 



In Sussex County, just south of Kent, the extensive 

 cultivation of the peach is but of recent /late. The soil 

 is lighter, which will tend to advance the maturity of the 

 fruit as well as the tree, and thus enable planters to put 

 their peaches into market several days earlier than in 

 Kent and New Castle, which is a considerable advantage. 

 Several new railroads have been completed within her 

 borders during the present year, which will afford her 

 greater facilities to get to market, and stimulate still fur- 

 ther this great and greatly increasing interest. 



