The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1893-02-16
A PAYING INDUSTRY.

Generally speaking, there is no
branch of industry which engages SO
little of the attention of Southern
people as that of fruit and vegetable
production. Every householder who
can has small orchard and garden
patch"-just sufficient to supply the
leeds of his family, and never stops
to think how much money there is in
producing these commodities for
market.
A few acres in good varieties of
fruits and vegetables would yield
larger revenue than the same amount
of land in either tobacco or any of
the grain crops, and they are much
easier of cultivation. 1t has been
demonstrated that any land that
will produce good tobacco is pecu-
liarly adapted to the growth of fine
fruits and vegetables; and, this being
so, it is self-evideRt that there is no
better section in the United States
than the Piedmont region for the
successful cultivation of these crops.
1t is not many years since the sec
ton around Rochester, N. Y, was
devoted to the cultivation of the
cereals. but the business did not pay;
the farmers year by year got poorer,
and only few years ago began the
cultivation of fruits and vegetables
1t paid, and others went into it.
Now, says a Rochester nurseryman,
there are fifteen hundred evaporators
in and around Rochester which en-
ploy, during the summer months,
about 3d. 900 hands. The evaporat-
ed and canned fruits and vegetables
turned out from these evaporators
are shipped to England, France,
Germany and other foreign markets,
and yield an annual revenue of about
100000.
The fruits that find readiest sale
and are most profitable are black
berries, raspberries, Strawberries,
cherries, grapes and indeed all the
smaller fruits. Most of these can be
shipped in their green state to the
NortherE markets, but it is more
profitable to evaEorate and can
them, particularly after the season
is a little advanced.
In vegetables, tomatoes, corn and
Lima Tor butterl beans are the best
for canning and evaporating pur-
poses. Why, do you know that all,
or nearly all, the butterbeans we get
here in Winston during the winter
are raised in California, several
thousand miles distant? 1t is fac;
and they bring $50 to 50 per
bushel in the Northern markets,
wholesale, and retail here at 10 cents
per quart-$3 20 per bushei. 1t is
said that on good land six to eight
hundred bushels per acre can be pro-
duced. They will grow here as lux
uriantly as in California or anywhere
else, and are almost as staple as
tobacco or cotton.
Now, the object of all this is to in
duce some of our farmers to give the
matter a test. Don't go at it in a
halt hearted, slip-shod manner, but
give it as good attention as you
would crop of tobacco. and we be-
lieve the results will be gratifying in
the highest degree. Get few of the
best varieties of grapes, raspberries,
&C., in time and try it this season.
Evaporators and fruit canning ma
chinsry viii be speedily forthcoming
if the farmers will furnish the work
for them to do.
We of the South don't diversity
enough; we depend too much upon
other markets for things that we
could not only produce in sufficient
quantities for our own use, but could
sell to othersat good profit. That
is the principal reason why the South
il no more prosperous today than it
is, and there win be no decided inn
provement until We change our
methods.
We shall have more to say along
this line later.