366 



Culture of the Peach Tree. 



70L. X. 



provements and repairs, and reduce the debt 

 annually, for I have no other means of im- 

 portance but the farm. 



A Constant Reader. 



Eastnn, Sid., June 9th, 1846. 



Communicated for the Fanners' Cabinet. 



Culture of the Peach Tree. 



The following extracts are made from a letter from 

 Dr. Thomson, of Wilmington, Del., dated the 26th of 

 Third month last, addressed to the Southern Planter. 

 The subject is important to peach growers, as well as 

 to the lovers of this delicious fruit. The Dr. says in 

 a part of his letter not copied, that the reports in cir- 

 culation of the enormous profits of this business, have 

 been greatly exaggerated: th's indeed is readilj' be- 

 lieved, by all who are in the least familiar with ope 

 rations of the kind. They should be discouraged and 

 rectified, as they are calculated to mislead and disap- 

 point the public— Ed. 



To Mr. Isaac Reeves, a native of New 

 Jersey, is the whole credit due of first intro- 

 ducing on a large scale the culture of the 

 inoculated peach tree into Delaware. Tiie 

 late Mr. Jacob Ridgway, of Philadelphia, 

 owning a farm near Delaware City, on the 

 Chesapeake and Delaware canal, was in- 

 duced by Mr. Reeves to become his partner, 

 and upon this property, in the spring of 1832, 

 they set out the first twenty acres of inocu- 

 lated peach trees ever planted in this State, 

 with the view of supplying the Philadelphia 

 market. They rapidly extended their planta- 

 tion to about one hundred and twenty acres, 

 were eminently successful, and one year — 

 the very best season they ever had — their 

 gro3S income from the sales of fruit was 

 some sixteen thousand dollars. Peaches 

 then commanded from one dollar twenty- 

 five cents to three dollars per basket, con- 

 taining about three pecks. In the spring of 

 1836, the late Mr. Manuel Eyre and myself 

 followed suit upon our " Union Farm," mid- 

 way between Wilmington and Newcastle 

 on the Delav.are river, to about the extent 

 of one hundred and forty acres. In a year 

 or two afterwards, Mr. Philip Reybold & 

 Sons went into the business — then a host of 

 others, until novv', from tv/enty-five hundred 

 to three thousand acres of land, in Newcas- 

 tle county, are planted with, and success- 

 fully cultivated in peache.^, making Dela- 

 ware, though the smallest of the States, the 

 largest producer of this Iruit. The result 

 has been a proportionate diminution of price, 

 the average, per basket, one season with an- 

 other, not exceeding from thirty to sixty 

 cents. In this way Delaware has become 

 the principal supplier of the Baltimore, Phi- 

 ladelphia, New York and North river mar- 



kets, and many of our fine peaches now 

 reach even Boston. The whole annual in- 

 cotne from this branch of business to the 

 farmers of this county may be estimnted 

 from one to two hundred thousand dollars. 

 For so handsome an additional product the 

 agriculturists of Delaware, as well as the 

 consumers of peaches in our vicinity, owe a 

 debt of gratitude to the originator of the 

 culture, whom as one, I should gladly unite 

 in presenting with some valued jind lasting 

 memento in recognition of his merit for 

 giving a new staple to a Slate; for who is 

 a greater benefactor to mankind and the 

 age he lives in, than he who brings into 

 operation a new branch of business, giving 

 by his enterprise and perseverance an irn^ 

 pet us to agriculture; causing 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 kinds, by 

 (mdding and grafting, so as to have the 

 fruit as early and as late as our latitude 

 will admit; the earliest ripening with U3 

 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, Algjers' 

 Winter, &c. I need not enumerate all the 

 different varieties used and planted out to 

 keep up this succession — some of the prin- 

 cipal are in the order of enumeration, Troth's 

 Early, Early York, Early Ann, Yellow Rare- 

 ripe, Red Rareripe, .JVIalacatoon, Morris' 

 White, Old Mixon, Rodman, Ward's Late 

 Free, Maiden, Free Smock, Late Rareripe, 

 Heath, Algiers' Winter, &c. These trees 

 are generally obtained for about six dollars 

 per hundred, from approved nurserymen in 

 Delaware and .New Jersey, and the rearing 

 of them constitutes a distinct business of it- 

 self. They are produced by planting out 

 the peach stones, or pits, in the spring, 

 which have been slightly covered with 

 earth 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 

 year's growth is cut off" above where the 

 scion has taken — not, however, until it is 

 well developed — when, in the fall and fol- 

 lowing spring they are ready for transplant- 

 ing or sale. The mode of preparing the 

 "■round for them is precisely that with us of 

 the Indian corn crop — the earth is well 



