Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-01-14
FLORIDA AND GEORGIA.
Senator Brown Gives a Talk About the
Products of These States.

I
Some days ago Senator Brown CAV
Hon. Henry Watterson a talk on tn
future Of Georgia and Florida and th
products of these States. The talk an
peared in the shape of an interview in th,
COurter-JOurndl
"Well, Senator. can YOU give me som,
facts about the quantity of fruit an,
vegetables that is now being shipped. an,
that is likely to be shipped in future frou
Georgia and Florida?''
Last winter was a year ago nv son
Joseph NJ. Brown, General Passenger
Agent OF the Western and Atlantic Rail
road Company, said to me and the Super
intendent that he intended next summer
meaning the summer of 1SS2-tO shiI
5OO car loads of watermelons West ovel
the Western and Atlantic Railroad.
tod MN that feared he had set his fig.
ures little too high" He said:
".'NO. will go to the coast and South
west Georgia and attend one or two meet.
lngs of the Fruit Growers Association
and lay before them the facts and oul
facilities for transportation, and will in.
duce them to plant heavily and [ will not
be disappointed in my figures The
summer of 1882 passed, and before the
end OF it we had shipped over the Western
and Atlantic Railroad nearly 800 car loads
OF Watermelons to the West.
This winter a year ago the General
Freight Agent said he intended in the sum-
mer of 1888 to ship 1000 carloads of mel
ons West over the Western and Atlantic.
The President and Superintendent again
thought his figures eXtravagant, but he
corresponded with the persons selling
fruit at different Western centres, and
with the chief fruit-grOwers in upper
Florida and the lower half of Georgia and
part of South Carolina.
"The summer of 1888 passed, and before
the end OF it 2,470 car loads of melons had
passed West over the Western and Allan
tic Railroad. This will give you some
idea of the melon business. Prior to 1882
scarcely any shipments of that character
had been made. The large number of
nearly 800 cars in 1882 was regarded as
extraordinary, but in a single year the
number leaped up from nearly 800 to $500
car loads, and it is hard to say what the
number may be this year. OF course
there were extensive shipments made
over the other lines going into the West
from the South. These passed over a
single road. l think, therefore, you peo-
pie of Louisville need not fear much
scarcity of delicious Southern melons in
future.
Il understand the planters in lower
Georgia are preparing for a much heavier
crop this year, and they probably raise as
tine as can be produced elsewhere"
"Well, Senator, what about the vege-
table business?'
Il have not the data in reference to
vegetables that l have in reference to
melons. All that / can say is that the
trade in vegetables is increasing. Fine
vegetables of every character needed on
the table can be raised in South Florida
any month during the winter, and almost
every month in the year in Northern
Florida and lower Georgia. The quantity
can be increased to any extent necessary,
and our transportation lines are being so
improved, and our freight trains for fruit
move with such rapdity and regularity,
that there is no difficulty about shipping
to the West. In a few years you can have
any quantity of the finest character of
vegetables which your people NAV need"
''Is there anything else that is likely to
grow into a large business between Geor-
gia and Florida to the West?'
Yes; the orange will astOnish you in q
few years. This is the first season that
oranges in any considerable quantity by
the carload have been shipped directly
West over the lines of railroad. The busi-
ness is entirely in its infancy, but the
General Freight Agent of the Western
and Atlantic, who was here the other dav,
informed me that he was now carving
from five to ten carloads a day of Florida
oranges over the road West.
''There is probably no place on the globe
where the orange grows to greater perfec-
tion than in all the southern portion of
Florida. The people of Florida are awake
to the Importance of the question. They
are planting immense numbers of orange
trees.
81 recOllect when at Jacksonville. in
March, 1880, l took up a paper published
at Palatka, giving the statistics of the
orange culture in Putnam county, Flori-
da. A very energetic committee of that
county had taken the pains to get the
name of every person, male or female.
bachelor or widow, who had orange trees.
and the exact number that each had.
and [ recollect that their statistics
showed that there was in round
numbers $1,000 trees in bearing in
that county. The estimate was that
there were $4,000 additional trees
that would bloom next spring and he in
bearing the next year or two. There were
then little over 100000 trees that had
been set out in groves, and over 800, 600 of
young sciOns from the seed in the nurse
ries, making in all about 100000 orange
trees, large and small, at that time in the
county of Putnam. 1t is safe to say that
twO-thirds of those that were then i'm the
nursery have by this time been planted in
groves. There are, therefore, probably
$4,000 orange trees in that single county.
all of which will be bearing within the
next ten years.
'There are many others, l suppose, that
are quite as well adapted to the business.
st. Johns river affords easy transpOrta-
tion for large section Of the territory of
Florida, and railroads are being rapidly
extended through every important part of
the State. 1t will, therefore, be only few
years before there will be 100000 of
orange trees in Florida in bearing. and
there will be ample transportation to bring
out the crop.
"The number of boxes of the fruit that
will be shipped out in a quarter of a CEN
tury from now will reach many millions
every year. They will be carrie d like the
watermelOns now are, or in large quanti-
ties by thousands of carloads. and the
business will become one of immense i'm
portance to the health. and comfort, and
will be great luxury to the people. But
the orange is not the only tropical fruit
that can be raised abundantly in Florida.
The citrOn, of commerce, grows as finely
on Indian river as it does probably any
where. The banana, the pineapple and
the guava all do well in that climate, and
it is said that the cOcOanut tree is being
transplanted from Cuba to Florida, and
that it will do admirably well in all the
southern part of the State.
''FOr melons, peaches, apples and grapes
the State of Georgia is greatly superior to
Florida, but for the production of tropical
fruits we have nothing in the Union to
cOmDare with hpr -