The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-05
TIE COMING FRUIT SECTION.
Wire Grass Georgia the Home OF the
Peach and the Melon.

Wire Grass Georgia the Home Of the
Peach and the Melon.
uf;On. Ca. April s-Prof. J. L. Budd
OF the Iowa State Agricultural College.
the best informed and most distinguished
pomoiogist Of the northwest. has just Wis
tied Triton on his return from tour
through Florida and the West Indies in
the interest OF his state horticultural so
eiety. He writes to the Iowa Safe Regis
ter under the head OF horticultural
Notes" as follows:
I'VE have recently given a number Of
days to an investigation of the fruit
growing possibilities OF the pine woods
belt of South Georgia. The common be-
lief has been that this region was "a nat,
sandy tract which could have but little
agricultural value when cleared by the
turpenune, rosin and pitch stills, and the
hundreds of great saw mills. our first
hint that this region might have great
horticultural possibilities came from in
speeding the grapes. melons and peaches
sent from near Triton. in South Georgia,
to the Columbian Exposition about July 1.
BY far the finest and best favored FL
berta peaches, Delaware, Brighton and
Ives grapes and early melons shown dur
ing the season were from this section.
At Triton, Cyclonelta and other points we
rode many miles 20 INSPECT the Oldest
fruiters Of the region and the hundreds Of
acres of peach orchards. vineyards,
and melon ground. 1t is fine rolling coun-
try. underlaid with the common Georgia
clay, with just enough sand
in the surface soil to insure
earliness OF ripening, high quality and
rich coloring of fruit. TwO-year-old peach
trees are laden with buds just ready to
open at this date. March 2l) the grape
buds are just starting and the melon grow
ers are busily planting seed. We are as
sured that the main crop of peaches
grapes and melons. will be ready to ship
from the first to the fifteenth Of July, and
the early varieties will be shipped from
the 10Th to the 25th of June. These early
dates of shipping insures good prices at
the north, and the speedy delivery in New
York, Philadelphia or even Chicago per-
mits the picking of the fruit when ripe
and highly colored. Another special adj
vantage of this favored section is COM
parative exemption from destructive
spring frosts. In Central Georgia. around
Macon and Griffin. only two fun crops OF
peaches have been gathered in six years,
while in the pine wood region around TIFF
ton the old settlers say there has not been
a total failure of the peach crop in forty
years Even last year, when the crop
was total failure north of Macon.
Triton peaches astonished visitors at tne
exposition. At FIT. Valley a few miles south
west of Macon, hundreds of acres OF
peaches have been planted within the past
four years. The AIbaugh and Hale or
chards alone cover over 200 acres and the
outlook for profitable results is very faV-
orable. Yet we wish to record the opinion
that immense crops of peaches and grapes
will be shipped from Triton when Fort
Valley has an of year. and when equal
harvests are grown at the two points the
hes and melons. VIII
bear shipping a week earlier, and the av-
erage in color. size and quality VIII be
much higher. If we owned a foot of land
in South Georgia soil this high opinion
of its horticultural future would not be
given As 1t is, we predict a rapid advance
In the selling value of denuded pine lands
high enough and dry enough for growing
the three fruits we have named. Indeed,
land that sold three years ago at y per
acre cannot now be bought for $40.
I'm connection with the above high es-
innate of South Georgia, we regret TO give
the opinion that the future of fruit grow
ing in Florida is not promising. North
of a. line drawn across the state from
Rockledge on the Atlantic coast, to Tampa
on the Gulf of Mexico, which includes
nearly all Of the orange groves OF the
state, the trees are practically dead. 1t
has been hoped that they would sprout
from the stem and main branches, but the
most sanguine are now cutting down the
trees, with the hope that they will sprout
from the stump. Where the cutting has
not been too long delayed this hope will
be realized, but North California expert
ences has demonstrated that the trees
from stumps are apt to split down and
topple over when of fruiting size. Again
the query arises, on account of the pine
forest on the north and northwest, is it
not probable that the cold waves will be
more frequent in the future than they
have been in the past. Florida lies lower
than any part of the northwest. and with
the removal of its protecting forests
is as much exposed to our
northwesters as South Texas Again. the
Florida climate is not favorable for a
period Of rest in trees. A degree of cold
that would not defoliate orange trees in
South California may utterly kill the trees
in Florida. To illustrates Prior to the
freeze in February the orange trees de
foliated by the December freeze were
coming into leaf. At the same time the
peach was in full blossom, and with we'll
started leaves the mulberry was nearly
in full leaf; roses were getting ready to
bloom, etc. In this growthy condition the
temperature of Feb. and 8, from 10 TO
Is degrees above zero, wrought destruction
such as has never been known in the
temperate zones. Around the great ho-
tells at st. Augustine, Tampa and many
other points, the palms, oleanders, citrus
fruits, figs and even roses and Chinese
peach trees were killed to the ground,
while on the clay lands of South Georgia
not a point of growth was killed, for the
reasons that subtropical trees are not
planted and not bud of the peach or
rose had started. The other main crops
of Florida are early garden vegetables
and strawberries all of which were sol
idly frozen. As we look at it, the de-
structlon of the immense pine forests of
South Georgia and Alabama has struck
a death-blow to Florida horticulture and
gardening, but 1t has opened a new ter
ritory where early peaches, grapes, straw
berries and melons can be grown in un-
limited quantity"
The Demand hangs.
~ Y o,lr Cores nondence pitt shltrer 0ss-