Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1877-09-13
Y1istellaneu>1s &eadiug,
FRUIT GROWING.
FRUIT GROWING.
An Essay Read before the Summer Meeting Of
the State Grange at Anderson, on August
8, by Col. r. NJ. Sims, Of Columbia, s. C..

An Essay Read before the Summer Meeting of
the State Grange at Anderson, on August
8, by Col. R. M. Sims, Of Columbia, s. C.
There are many reasons, growing out of
our natural resources and our political and
social condition, that require and demand a
greater diversity in our industries. In the
rural districts we, need variety of employment
and relief from the fatigue and dreariness of
the one routine of daily physical labor = in
our cities and towns We need the energy and
enterprise that grows out of active and varied
cultivation of the soil and the development of
water power. The effect of diversifying our
employments will be to make occupations for
every one. 1t will make good workers out of
many who are now idle, and who either can
not find employment or do not find congenial
employment. By giving variety we add in
telligence and dignity to labor, and tighten
the burden and elevate the character of those
who do the rough work we encourage better
habits and cultivate higher order Of tastes !;
we learn to appreciate the relations of cause
to effect, of climate and soil to production,
and of education and industry to happiness
and substantial comfort. Manufacturing,
stock raising, fruit culture, bee keeping and
poultry and fish raising commend themselves
to US as both practicable and profitable, either
as independent occupations or to be pursued
in conjunction with farming. Of fruit grow.
ing we are very ignorant. Our apology for
this ignorance is the aggravated subjugation
of the last twelve years. Our congratula-
ton is that we have lived through it. Now
that an era of peace and honest government
has come, we should stake the current as it
serves" to Increase the value and variety of
our products, and to diversity our employ.
ments and industries, so as to combine and de-
velop the means at our hand for the improve
ment and elevation of our people and State.
Let each person thoughtfully solve the
problem as to what is his best interest. In
this let him consider his location and soil, his
means and his tastes as factors to produce the
highest degree of Intelligence, refinement, re-
spectability and comfort. Having selected
his industries, let him 60 intelligently and
energetically to work to understand how to
succeed. There has been so much prejudice
against books and book farming by class,
that it has become ridiculous, and fortunately
has nearly worn out itself and its followers.
There is much good sense and practical wis
dom contained in books, as there is often
much nonsense and frivolity; and it is not
creditable to the intelligence of man to say
that he cannot learn valuable lessons from
books, or that he is injured by reading them.
If you undertake fruit raising with some in
telligence, whether you get it from books,
from your neighbors or from your own obser-
vation, your labor will be very much easier
and your chances of success proportionately
greater. Without it your chances of failure
are multiplied. There are books that are
standard authorities upon fruit growing, and
there are numerous men and fruit growers
who are intelligent, honest and trustworthy.
If you consult them and profit by their
directions, you will succeed if, on the con-
trary, you grope for years in ignorance and
inexperience, and consult only with the tree
pedders who bring to your door trifing trees
at enormous prices, you will either become
disgusted and cease to make efforts to raise
fruits, or you will succeed only after years of
successive failures.
- You have in horticulture an industry older
than agriculture. You have the experience
and observation of intelligent men of all ages
and from all parts of the world but you have
what is more useful to you, the experience
and wisdom of the most honest and honorable
horticuturists of the United States and Of
your sister States Georgia and North Carroll
| na; this experience is in books aud i'd month.
ly and weekly periodicals and in reports of
the proceedings of horticultural societies.
These reports are reviewed and corrected and
added to bienially by the American Pomo-
logical Society, each State being required to
report through the chairman ofits fruv COM
mittee as to varieties, soil and climate, and
semi-annually by the Georgia Horticultural
Society, each section of the State being repre-
sented in the discussions. You have gen.
tleman living less than hundred miles from
here and in sight of the borders of your State,
whose name is synonym of honor and integ-
rity, and whose high intelligence upon fruit
culture is authority in England, France, Ger
many and where Anglo-Saxon civilization ex-
lists. You have living in the modest town of
Chester, in this State, gentleman whose Ia
bors in the perfection of our fruits by bybridi-
cation are better known and appreciated in
Australia to-day than they are here. You
have just at hand every facility to become in.
telligent in fruit growing, and you have in
your climate and soil and in its variety and
capacity to produce almost every kind OF
fruit, the greatest inducement to become so.
You have, besides, the attraction that fruit
growing presents as an occupation in being
refining, elevating, healthful, invigorating and
profitable. Besides, you have not great
deal to learn to be able to succeed, and you
will learn it so easily and so pleasantly if you
take an interest in it, that it will become di.
rectly pleasant recreation. You must first
learn the kind of fruit that suits your climate,
soil and location then what varieties and the
time of their ripening are best suited to your
climate, soil and location, considering their
value for home and for market. Nearly every
kind Of fruit that grows in the north temper
ate zone may be grown somewhere in South
Carolina. Semi-tropical fruits-as oranges,
lemons, lines, bananas-may be raised along
the southern Atlantic coast; peaches and
grapes grow we'll on the coast BESIDES From
the coast to the great falls in the rivers near
ly all of our native fruits improve in their
character; in this region the scuppernong
grape is most prolific and excellent. In the
middle country the peach, the apple, the pear
grape and the plum grow to great perfection
in the Piedmont region the apple and the
grape doubtless do far better than in the mid.
die and lower country. The pear is 80 subject
to blight, and the intelligence and resources
ofhorticulturalsts and scientists having failed
to find preventive or remedy for it, it is
with fear and trembling that we plant pear
orchard anywhere. The Duchess grows best
on dwarf stock and is least liable to blight
and IT, ia one of our LARGEST and best pears I
would say that the great staple fruit crops for
the lower country would be figs, grapes, peach
es and pears for the middle country grapes