The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-16

and valley fields below, have made the
Hale farm famous throughout New Eng
land, to say nothing Of the carloads of
luscious fruits produced later in the sea-
son. The little push cart has long since
given way to more modera means Of
| transportation. The Hartford street
| railway has run q sldetrack into this
farm, and the fruit is packed in cars
constructed for that purpose, and rushed
by electricity to the steam railway, nine
miles distant. This is the first fruit farm
in the United States to adopt the troll
ley car for handling fruit direct from
Lhe orchard
GROWING PEACHES IN GEORGIA.
Having thus made fair start in Con-
nectlcut, Mr.. Hale wanted to extend his
orchards. After visiting every peach
growing section in this country, he To-
Gated tract OF about-2 100 acres in cen
tral Georgia, near Fort Valley On this
immense plantation he has developed the
largest individual orchard in the world
over Z5OVy0 trees are fruiting and young
er orchards are coming on each season.
Trees are set with perfect regularity
thirteen feet apart and the orchard is
lad off into blocks LOCO by 500 feet each
way. The avenues are thirty feet wide
and the cross streets twenty-six feet
VICE: The former are named after the
great peach producing states, California.
Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, Delaware
New Jersey, Connecticut, Georgia, etc,
while the latter are called Downing
WllceF, Warder Thomas, Barry, Cold,
BaHey, etc, after renowned hortiCUltu-
IIStS mus the whole system is unique.
From the main packing shed stretching
away Tor two miles IS one great forest Of
peach trees.
Mr.: Hale has systematized every detail
OF this industry. During the height Of
the season in June and July over 800
persons, about equally divided between
white and black, are employed and t6ey
free ha11 Vi1, 100
at O'Clock In the morning, which serves
as signal to the superintendent that
the stable man is at his post feeding
| his horses and mules. At o'clock
! through the gray of the morning, the
merry procession starts through the or
chard, singing. From morning till night
the plantation echoes the refrains Of the
negroes, happy and contented. hidden
among the foliage. The trees are headed
lowl and all the fruit, even on the oldest
! trees, can be picked from the ground
without ladder. The pickers are divided
into gangs Of about twenty, each with
foreman. Every picker is numbered
and furnished with bunch of cards beat
ing his number. When he begins picking
he drops card in the bottom of the
basket. All fruit must be picked accord
ing to a standard of ripeness and variety
in any way deficient it Is detected at
the packing house and the numbered
card in the bottom is given to the field
superintendent, who Is constantly In the
fender and brings him to task.
PACKING PEACHES FOR THE MAR
KET.
By o'clock in the morning the wag-
ons begin to bring the fruit into the
packing she'd and there is a constant
stream of fruit pouring in all day long.
The baskets, set upon the platform are
Immediately taken by the assorters, who
divide the fruit into three grades in long
canvas trays stretched upon a table be-
fore them. On the opposite side of these
long tables hundreds of white girls and
boys of the most refined classes, tnclud-
ing school teachers, musicians, artists
and others, pack the fruit in small four
quart baskets Six of these baskets con-
stitute a carrier or crate. Every peach
must be UP to standard SIZE without
blemiSh, and In a perfect state Of ripe
ness before being placed in one Of these
close watch in the packing shed and be-
fore the lid is nailed on every crate
is inspected by an expert who makes
sure that every piece Of fruit Is what
the guaranty carries with It, IN a per-
feet condition and the same all the way
through. If a single peach IS found
Containing a brulse or blemish Of any
kind the entire crate is returned to the
packer, and as penalty it must be re-
| packed. The girls handling this fruit
become very expert and from so to 100
crates a day is considered a good pack
| although some experts pack from ITS to
200 crates. Each carrier contains from
100 to 30 peaches, depending on the
grade. Each packer handles during the
day from 10000 to 10000 pieces of fruit
| in addition to handling the baskets and
carriers. Every basket. crate and even
the cars are labeled with Mr.. Hale's red
label
Last summer a Northern man who
was visiting this orchard timed two Of
| the expert packers, a man and a woman.
Each removed three baskets and the mid
| die partition, handled 1S2 peaches, and
set the carrier aside for shipments in
two minutes and twelve seconds. The
same day another expert who was pack
ing cantaloupes, handled forty-six melons
and packed them ready for market in
| twenty seconds. The boys who nan the
lids upon the packages also become ex-
! perts. One lad drove six nails in nine
seconds, while his competitor drove the
/ same number and set the package aside
in ten seconds. The fruit is passed di-
rectly into refrigerator cars from the
! shed. Less than an hour elapses from