1240 PEACH 



reach its destination and plain cars for near-by points. 

 The cost per basket on refrigerator cars to Boston, 

 Providence, Hartford, and other eastern points is about 

 40 cents, and to New Yorls, Elmira or Syracuse about 

 35 cents each. In plain cars the cost to New York is 

 19 cents, and to Philadelphia about 12 cents each. 



A large proportion of the smaller fruit is used by can- 

 ning factories, of which there are one or two in every 



--■l'l'(«k. 



1678. Hale Peach I 



town. A factory in Seaford uses about 3,000 baskets per 



full capacity. The Peaches 

 lie factories of the state employ 

 Formerly a good many of the 

 i|"'rated, and evaporators were 

 I. h-growing belt. The present 

 I fruit and the competition of 

 t have caused this phase of the 

 Peach business to be abandoned. Numerous factories 

 have converted large forests of gum and of pine trees 

 " "■ ' 11100 the baskets cost 



day wh 

 peeled 1 

 several 

 smaller 

 built til 

 low pri 

 Californ 



l.ask.-ts. 



14 1 



have the standard 

 Than in the Peach, 

 anted not more than 



Formerly the white 

 Mountain Rareripe, 

 ill is for yellow fruit, 

 \ e to be sold at low 

 I pay, but 

 best variet 





orchard 



ten years ua.. an- i.^ :;■ i i • ' ' 

 demand then an i 

 Peaches, such a~ ' 



were in strongdin 



and the finest wlui. \:ui.ih- 

 prices. Early kinds als" usid 

 come in competition with th 

 Georgia. Late varieties, which were also very profitable, 

 are now ripe when the best fruit from New York, New 

 Jersey and western Maryland is in the market. The old 

 orchards comprise Troth, Hale, Crawford Early. Moun- 

 tain Rose, Reeve, Oldmixon, Mt. Rareripe, Crawford 

 Late, Stump, Smock. Couper Late, Garey Hold-on, and 

 others, and as in other fruits, most of them contain 

 too many kinds. A large proportion of these old kinds 

 have to go to the canning factories at low prices when- 

 ever there is a general Peach crop, as the market will 

 not take them. In the new orchards the yellow fruit 

 will predominate, with a few white varieties. Probably 

 the kinds most often found in orchards under five years 

 old are Foster, Mountain Rose, Reeves, Oldmixon. 

 Moore Favorite, Elberta, Chair Choice, Crawford Late 

 and Smock. The Elberta is being planted more heavily 

 than any other variety. If the writer were to set a new 

 orchard his own choice would be as follows: Connett 

 Early, perhaps Mountain Rose, Foster, Reeves, Elberta. 

 Chair, perhaps Crawford Late, Prize and Townsend. 

 Nearly all growers would always include Crawford Late, 

 and many of them Moore Favorite and Thurber. 



Of the newer varieties in Delaware, Connett Early. 



PEACH 



Carman, VVaddell, Greensboro, Champion, Mamie Ross 

 and Lady Ingold are the most promising, with prefer- 

 ence for the first three and the fifth and sixth. The 

 Delaware Experiment Station has an experimental 

 orchard of 300 varieties ten years old at Seaford, on the 

 writer's place, and another orchard of 75 varieties at 

 Bridgeville, most of which fruited in 1900. In the Sea- 

 ford orchard a number of Tasmanian trees were planted 

 to determine their orchard value and their suscepti- 

 bility to Peach yellows. A number were al.so planted at 

 the Delaware Experiment Station grounds and in other 

 parts of New Castle county. In Sussex county they are 

 vastly inferior to home-grown stock in the quality of 

 the fruit and in the growth of the trees, while in New 

 Castle county they practically all died from the yellows. 



5. Peach Yellotvs.-The yellows swept the orchards 

 out of New Castle county and from the northern part of 

 Kent county, but it has not advanced for ten years much 

 beyond the borders of northern Sussex. The most 

 intelligent growers hold it in check by cutting out the 

 trees on the first indication of disease and burning 

 them, but there is no systematic attempt on the part of 

 all growers, nor on the part of the state, to stamp out 

 the trouble. There is a yellows law on the statutes, but 

 it is not enforced, though in the past its enforcement 

 did much good. For several years the disease has not 

 been so severe, though there has been a good deal of 

 complaint about it in 1900. New orchards are again 

 being planted on a large scale in Kent county and some 

 are again planting around Middletown in New Castle 

 county. Many believe that the yellows has run its 

 course in Delaware, and that by careful attention in 

 taking out trees the Peach can again be set in places 

 where the yellows has wiped out the orchards. 



6. General Remarks. — The geographical location of 

 Delaware is such that no other market can approach it 



aing 



It 



ontinent. 

 reach most of them, and 

 ■ mnrkets. The soils are 



)i l:i'v:iri . n liiidilim loam 



in the central part, and a sand \ 



It is easily and cheaply workii 



kindly to treatment. Of th.' n 



cleared of chestnut and sassaiia- ai 



pine-land makes excellent orchards. 



cow-peas or other cover-crops grow readily and furnish 



humus and nitrogen to the soil, and with the natural 



ease of working and cheapness of labor make it possible 



to bi-ing an orchard into bearing and to maintain it at a 



■I'sponds 

 recently 

 red, but 





very low cost. Late spring frosts are the most serious 

 drawback to the business. Sometimes several crops 

 will come through in succession, then for three or four 

 years the crop will be killed. In the past decade there 

 have been four crops in the state. Other dra%vbacks are 

 the large orchards, making intensive culture without a 

 large capital impossible, while still another is the ten- 

 ant system of working the land, which makes it difficult 



