640 Transactions of the American Institute. 



not been ascertained, but tlie largest steamer brought on one trip 

 10,000 baskets. It will not do to close this subject until I speak 

 of a peciiliar branch of business connected with the running of the 

 peach expresses. A band of organized thieves follow these trains, 

 and at every depot where the}' stop they make attacks, and the cast 

 iron frames laid over the ventilating holes are not the least obstruc- 

 tion to them ; they are broken at a blow, and I am well eatislied 

 that frequently the brakemen and conductors are the principals in 

 the business, for no man could destroy these gratings and not be 

 lieard by these officials, and the quantity taken shows that they have 

 plenty of time to carry on their operations, for I have knowai a 

 dozen baskets of fruit to be taken out through a hole ten 

 inches square, and this must have been done while the train was 

 in motion. The cars of the Camden and Araboy road offer every 

 inducement to these theives, for the ventilators in their cars are on 

 the top. A cast iron grating covers the opening in the roof, whicli 

 is surmounted with a covering similar to a chinmey covering that 

 protects the interior from the storms. Tliis cover they knock entirelj' 

 off, break the grating and help themselves. Then, as soon as one 

 basket is emptied,- they pull up another and take all they want. It ia 

 sometimes the case that the door of a car is broken open, and a larger 

 quantity stolen. One morning a car was found open as the train ran 

 in the depot, the conductor being on the top of it, and his reply 

 was to nij rononstrance, that he did not care if tlie whole load was 

 stolen ; it was none of his business so that he brought the car in. 

 This feature of the business is encouraged by the mode of freighting, 

 for the road say that if they deliver the car, they are not responsible 

 for the safety of tlie fruit ; be this as it may, they refuse to pay for 

 the stolen fruit. In order that a dealer may be in time for the train 

 lie is compelled to rise about one a. m., and he is a fortunate man 

 if he can retire before eight p. m. The commission for selling peaches 

 is ten per cent ; this includes the paying for all baskets he loses, not 

 those the road lose, loading the cars, and also guaranteeing the sales, 

 making his returns weekly. The carting is four cents ]->er basket ; 

 this includes the ferriage, collecting, and returning of the baskets to 

 the cars. The wholesale operations in peaches are made at night by 

 lamp-light, and great mistakes are often made. The system by which 

 tlie great crop of Delaware is brought to the metropolis needs impor- 

 tant clianges, and some that cannot be secured without better laws 

 and better execution of the laws than wc have. 



