Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 489 



and, like alcoholic drinks, is not digested, and like them affects the 

 brain, though in a different way, making the mind more dull, stupid 

 and vicious, besides corrupting the blood, and disordering the system 

 in various other ways of those who eat much of it for years ; or if 

 they stand it without any apparent ill effects, it may be transmitted 

 to their offspring. Fat pork is not needed to give strength, vivacity 

 and the power of enduring the cold. Moses and Aaron understood 

 what was and what was not suitable meat for man to use as food 

 much better than the majority of people of the present day — even 

 the majority of the New York Farmers' Club. 



Profit of Peach Culture. 



The Chairman read from the Wilmington Commercial an account 

 of the proceedings of a recent meeting of the Peninsula Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Association, held at Dover, Del., February 20. Some twenty-five 

 or thirty extensive growers were present, and the following summary 

 exhibits the statements made : In 1868 the crop was a total failure. 

 In 1871 it was immense, but prices were very low. A crop, however, 

 may be relied upon three years in four, and the return is as certain 

 as for wheat. There are now six canning establishments, consuming 

 75,000 baskets, and putting up 750,000 cans. 



Mr. P. T. Quinn — I went down to the peach region on the 16th of 

 August, last year, and instead of fancy prices, we found the growers 

 getting the most ruinous rates. Mr. Cummings told me that he sold 

 1,600 baskets at three and a half cents per basket, and another large 

 lot at fourteen cents. I saw 15,000 baskets rotting because there was 

 no sale for them, and an entire car load came back to Dover, while I 

 was there, because they could not be sold. There seemed to be a 

 perfect demoralization among the peach consumers of New York last 

 year. I doubt if there were many fruit-growers on the peninsula who 

 averaged fifty cents per basket, and think most likely not more than 

 twenty-five cents. Mr. Edwards, the largest peach-grower in the 

 world, who has 1,350 acres in bearing trees, sold his crop at an average 

 of twenty-two cents per basket. (A member — He has since published 

 that he averaged seventeen and a half cents.) John Harris, another 

 large peach-grower, told me that his crop averaged from seventeen to 

 twenty-four cents per basket. 



Mr. Henry Stewart — I was in Delaware last year and the year 

 before, and I can corroborate Mr. Quinn's statement. A friend of 

 mine who sent 40,000 baskets to Baltimore did not get enough for 

 them to pay for picking. 



