The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-09-04
Commercial Peach Culture In Georgia,
The Greenyille Nc,rs reports tt

mountains near Greenvlllc, and 1T is
privately reported to us that cxcep-
tionally fine ones have been grown on
the sand dunes of the sea islands.
They grow also in Marlboro and in
Beaufort, in Edgefeld and in Marion.
It ought to be possible to grow them
for market on large scale, under the
improved methods employed by mod
ern orchardists, in any part of the
State.
The season for preparing and setting
out orchards is near at hand. And
any farmer or landowner who "does
not know what to do with" his idle
acres, but thinks the business of
peach growing rather too picayune for
his attention, and not to be compared
with the dignity of cotton raising, will
be interested and instructed in de-
gree to read some of the statements by
Mr.. j. H. Hale, in a letter to the
American Agriculturist, in regard to
the conduct and product Of the great
orchard near Fort Valley, Ca, that is
known by his name.
The foundation Of the orchard, says
Mr.. Hale, was can old cotton planta-
tion Of 900 acres" purchased five
years ago. A little over 100000 peach
trees were planted on 600 acres in the
winter of 1891 and 1892, the orchard
being laid out in blocks 1000 feet
long and 500 feet wide, with avenues
| and streets running north and south
and east and west between the blocks.
A resident superintendent, 30 or 40
colored hands," and 16 mules have
kept up most thorough cultivation for
the past three years.
There was full bloom on the orch
| ard in the spring Of 1894, but a heavy
| frost the last of s1arch destroyed all
| the fruit prospects. This year, the
fourth summer after planting, all the
| trees set full amount Of fruit, "and
| during April and May 40 to so hands
| were employed in thinning out the
| surplus!' Thinning out the surplus,
it should be noted, is one of the most
important features of the work in all
the commercial orchards. Extra tene-
ment houses, great packing sheds, 15
heavy spring wagons, $4,000 crates
and 100000 fruit baskets were pro-
vided during May and June and the
harvest began by the goth of June.
About 4, 900 crates were picked daily,
and to do this work 1850 hands and
go mules were kept constantly employ
ed from daylight until dark.
The fruit is carefully picked by
gangs of men, with an instructor"
for each party Of eight or ten 1t is
hauled in low spring wagons to the
great packing shed, where all over
ripe, ill-shapen and Scared fruit is
rejected and carted off, to the amount
of 300 bushels daily. The perfect
fruit is graded into two sizes by deft
fingered women and girls, and packed
by others in four-quart baskets, six Of
which fill crate. These are hauled
to the railroad in spring wagons with
canvas covers to protect the fruit
from heat, dust and rain. At the
railroad station they are loaded into
refrigerator cars, holding from 525 to
600 crates each, and shipped to North
ern and Western markets. The cost
of picking, packing, crates, carriage,
freight and refrigeration amounts to
about $500 on each carload, and, with
total output Of about eighty cars this
season, the total cost of marketing the
crop from this one orchard was over
$40, 1000!
There is plenty Of Expansion" in
the business, it is seen, for the grower
who is capable of expanding it. Two
thousand 4OO-pound bales of cotton,
the combined crop of one hundred
2O-bale farms, would have been re.
quired to pay ''the cost of marketing"
the crop Of this single orchard this
year. Peach growing, evidently, is
not necessarily more picayune busi-
ness than cotton growing; and it pays
better, according to all accounts,
when it is conducted in business
way.
The leading peach in the Fort Val
ley region is the "Elberta," which has
now become very generally known
among peach buyers in this part OF the
country, but Mr.. Hale thinks that too
many Of that one variety are planted
in his own and the neighboring orch
ards. The alexander" an extra
early sort, he says, is also grown on
large scale in Southern Georgia, but
the first really good peach is the Ill
lotson, which in ordinary seasons
ripens about the 5th of June but
was two weeks later this year. "Fol-
lowing this" he adds, "the best
peaches are St. John, Mountain Rose,
Lady Ingold, Elberta, Belle Of Geor,,
gia and Late Crawford, which round
out the season about the first of Au-
gust" all of which will be Of interest
to intending orchardists in this State,
and may be of value to those who pro-
pose to reduce their intentions to
practice this winter.
The peach crop in Houston County,
Ca, alone, we are told finally, lis
giving employment to fully three thou
sand people, and all the streets lead
ing. to railroad stations are, during the
picking seasons, daily lined with wa
CONS and carts of all sizes and descrip-
tions hauling fruit to market" Solici-
tors and buyers from nearly every city
in the country attend the harvest, and
most of the crop is sent off to be sold
on commission. Sales on the ground
are daily made, however, at prices
ranging from 40 cents to 81 a crate,
and the business must be profitable at
those figures, as It's extending rapidly
every year.
AS we have remarked before, there
is abundant evidence that as fine
peaches can be grown in any county
in South Carolina as are grown in
Houston County, Georgia. The crop
should be exposed to less danger OF
frost in our lower coast region than in
uo,oton County ond the season of