The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-22
PEACH CROP OFF 1000 CARS.
1T WILL FALL THAT MUCH SHORT
OF EARLY ESTIMATES.

Traffic Manager II. III. Hinton of the
Central Thought the Yield Would
BE Immense, But the Incessant
Rains Cut Into His and Others
Calculations - Up to Thursday
There Were Some 1850 Cars
Moved From Georgia - Methods
Adopted by the Central for the
Benefit of the Peach Growers.
Nearly the entire peach crop has been
moved. Some of the Elbertas and the
later varieties remain, but the bulk of
the yield has been marketed. Up to
Thursday, when the last reports were
made up, 1850 cars had been moved. This
is the record kept by the Central Railroad
of its own movements and those reported
to ID by other Georgia lines with which
an agreement prevails, but the record was
not started until after the season had
been on for short while. Traffic Man
ager f. H. Hinton estimates that there
must have been 100 cars before the record
was begun. which would run the total to
1850.
Mr.. Hinton says that the daily move
ment has fallen off now, and that il will
continue TO decrease. He does not know
how many more cars will be moved, but
believes there will not be enough to run
up the total to number that would cause
the crop to fall less than 1000 short of
the estimate he made for il before the
continuous rains got in their destructive
work. To these rains is attributed the dis
astrous falling off In the yield, for which
there was such excellent promise in the
late spring and early summer.
Not only did the incessant rain soften
the peaches and cause them to fall from
the trees, but it also affected the quality
OF much of the fruit that was shipped,
causing 1t to decay. A fungus was created
by the excessive moisture, and often the
fruit was not received by the dealers in
perfect condition. The price, naturally,
was reduced by this untoward circum-
stance.
The year will not prove as profitable TO
the growers as was 1898. The yield this
year gave promise of being greater, and
high hopes were entertained, but they
were drowned by the rains BY some of
the growers good prices were realized, but
The disappointment to many will be keen,
but they will go to work next year in the
hope that conditions for the fruit may be
more favorable.
The Central Railroad, through Mr.. Hin
toms department, exerted every possible
effort to aid the growers in marketing
their fruit to the best advantage. An
excellent service was afforded, the
Armour Car Line, with which
the Central had an exclusive con-
tract, placing more than enough cars at
its service. all of them literally stocked
with ice from the companys storehouse
al Macon, Fort Valley and Marshallville.
Special representatives were kept con-
etantly at shipping points, in order that
they might be right at hand for the con-
venience of the growers
Macon was made the clearing point for
valuable informs tion that was bulletined
daily to the growers at every station
along the line of the Central This infor-
nation was compiled by a special man.
who sat up until late in the night getting
his data and sending off the bulletins. A
code was arranged to facilitate the work,
and bright and early every morning the
agents had the information posted q their
Offices. The bulletins showed the num-
Der of cars that had been shipped from all
stations in Georgia the day before and
the markets 20 which they were sent.
From this the growers were able to judge
whether a market were glutted, and many
ill-advised shipments were doubtlessly
prevented by means of the bulletins. They
will continue to be sent out until the
peach season is over, and next year the
Central will again adopt the plan, for the
growers would scarcely know how to shin
intelligently without ii.