Homer guardian., 1889-06-07
The Clingman Nurseries.

place above named last Monday
morning. These nurseries with a,
Il. Clingman as proprietor. were
established in 1873 and arc situated
about one mile and half west of
Homer. Mr., Clingman forcsaw
the advantages and necessities of a
home enterprise of this kind. where
acclimated fruits, flowers and shrubs
could be grown. His business has
rapidly increased from the Begin
ming, when his patronage was con-
fined to a few in this state; until it
reaches over nearly all the South
crn States, will, sales approximate
ing 1900 annually. At first
Mr.. Clingman had only a few mon
employed, and now his salcsmcn
and employees number about sixty
men.
A stroll through fifty acres of
ground, filled with all kind of fruit
trees, flowers and ornamental shrubs
etc. convinced the writer that Mr..
Clingman's reputation as an extern
siye propagatOr Of nursery stock,
has not been ovcrdrawn. A brief
mention of what We saw may not
be out of place. We were first
shown about twenty five varieties
of Summer and Autumn pears.
Among them We noticed the Bart
lett, Chinese Sand, Keiffcr and the
LcConte. We make special men
ton of the two last named varieties.
The keiffer is hybred pear of un-
usually large size and ripens early
in September. The trees that we
saw of this variety, being from
three to five years old were all full
of fruit, some of them with more
than the limbs can support. The
LcConte is also supposed to be a
hybred of very fine and cultivated
variety. 1t is well aeelimatcd and
is u success, Us 1t never fails to bear
and usually each tree has as much
fruit as it can support. The stock
of peaches comprised about sixty
varieties, from the early May to the
late November. The Amsden,
which is an early May, was nearly
gone, but we ate Il few which were
delicious aud well naturcd. We
were shown another fine May peach
called the Arkansaw Traveller. the
original tree of which bore its first
crop in 1873 when three years old,
and was ripe by the 18th of May.
But of all the early varieties. we
think the Clingnan May the best.
This peach was selected out of q
large lot of seedlings and has the
reputation of bearing regularly evry
year. retaining its fruit well and
ripeniug fully natured by the 18th
of May.
We also mention q very rare fruit
in this part of the country called
Japanes Persimmon. These trees
were first imported from Japan and
have been found to do well here.
The tree is very ornamental and be-
gins to bear the first year. The
fruit grows to be as large as oran-
ges, and when ripe, is of an orange
or yermillion color. We saw as
many as twenty persinmons on one
small twig of tree one year old.
Mr.. Clingman has one variety of
this fruit that is seedless and il said
to be the finest fruit in the world.
OF the apples, plums, pruncs cher
rics, appricots, ounces, grapes,
etc. (, there was no end, Mr.. Cling
man having spared no pains in pro-
pagating every variety acclimated
here. We also saw many varieties
of strawberries, but as the season
for them is over, there were very
few ON the vines. There were a
few on the vines of tho Sharpless
variety that measured one and a half
inches in diameter
The ornamental department of
the nursery was also well kept, and
contained many beautiful ever
green's and all the varieties of roses,
bulbs and hcrbaceous plants.
We haven't the space to give a
detailed description of all we saw,
but frankly admit that it surpassed
our expectations. We see no reas-
on why our people should buy nur-
sery stock abroad when they have
a home enterprise right here as
good as any foreign one. Mr..
Clingman has studied the business
for several years, and is well exper-
fenced in fruit growing and horti-
culture. Besides he is an upright,
man and will make good
his part of the contracts. We know
of a great many objections to the
fruit propagated in these nurseries,