The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-09-13
FRUIT GROWING.

FRUIT GROWING.
An Essay Read Before the Summer Meeting
of the State Grange ct anderson, S. C.,
ON the 9th of august 1877, By Col. r.
NJ. 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 greater diversity in our indus
tries. In the rural districts we need va
riety 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 ont of active and varied culti-
walton of the soil and the development
ofwater power. The effect of diversity
ing our employments will be to make oc-
cupations for every one. Il will make
good workers out of many who are now
idle, and who either cannot find employ
ment or do not find congenial employ
ment. By giving variety we add intelli-
gence and dignity to labor, and tighten
the burden and elevate the character of
those who do the rough work; we en-
courage better habits and cultivate a
higher order of tastes; we learn to appre-
ciate 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 occupa-
tions or to be pursued in conjunction
with farming. OF fruit growing we are
very ignorant. Our apology for this ig-
norance is the aggravated subjugation of
the last twelve years. Our congratula-
tion is that we have lived through it.
Now that an era of peace and honest
government has come, we should take
the current as it serves" to increase the
value and variety of our products, and
to diversity our employments and indus
tries, so as to combine and develop the
means at our hand for the improvement
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 intelli.
gence, refinement, respectability and
comfort. Having selected his industries,
let him go 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 ont itself and its follow
ers. There is much good sense and prac-
tical wisdom contained in books, as there
is often much nonsense and frivolity !;
and it is not creditable to the intelligence
ola man TO say that he cannot learn val
liable lessons from books, or that he is
Injured by reading them. If you under.
take fruit raising with some intelligence,
whether you get it from books, from your
neighbors or from your own observation,
your labor will be very much easier and
your chances ofsuccess 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 contrary, you
grope for years in ignorance and inex-
perience, and consult only with the tree
peddlers who bring to your door trifliDg
trees at enormous prices, You will either
become disgusted and cease to make eff
forts 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 horticulturists
of the United States and of your sister
States, Georgia and North Carolina !;
this experience is in books and in month.
ly and weekly periodicals and in reports
of the proceedings of horticultural socie-
ties. These reports are reviewed and
corrected and added to biennially by the
American Pomological Society, each
State being required to report through
the chairman of its fruit committee as to
varieties, soil and climate, and semi-an-
nually by the Georgia Horticultural So
ciety, each section of the State being
represen ed in the discussions. You have
q gentleman living less than hundred
miles from here and in sight of the bor-
ders of your State, whose name is syn:
onym of honor and integrity, and whose
high intelligence upon fruit culture is
authority in England, France, Germany
and wherever Angle-Saxon civilization
exists. You have living in the modest
town of Chester, in this State, gentle
man whose labors in the perfection ofour
fruits by hybridization are better known
and appreciated in Australia to-day than
they are here. You have just at hand
every facility to become Intelligent in
fruit growing, and you have in your cli-
mate and soil and in its variety and Ca
pacity 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 directly
a 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
aud for market. Nearly every kind OF
fruit that grows in the north temperate
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 nearly all of our
i,ative fruits improve in their character
in this region the scuppernong grape is
most prolific and excellent. In the mid
die country the peach, the apple, the