The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-28
PEACH KING HALE.

Says the Crop in Georgia is All Right
 Writing to the Hartford Times from
 Fort Valley, Georgia, under date of
 June 23, J. II. Hale of Glastonbury in
 this state, the great peach expert
 says:
 ] Down here in the heart of the l Georgia peach district, busy with the i plans of harvesting our great crop now
 fast maturing on the trees. I am sur
 prised to read in the Times of the 18th the Atlanta dispatch as to peaches rot | ting on the trees and the predicted I ruin of this seasons peach crop. "The facts of the situation are these:
 May and all the early part of June
 was cold and wet, and last week, right
 in the height of the early peach har- vest, it rained continuously for four days and many peaches of the easily rotting Triumph variety were made
 unfit for shipment, and there was a
 heavy loss on this particular variety,
 which, however, does not represent
 more than five to seven per cent. of
 the crop in Georgia. No harm was
 done In the later and better varieties.
 For a week now we have been having
 superb summer weather and fine peaches are maturing fast in perfectly sound condition.
 Never before in the history of the Hale orchard have the prospects been as bright as at this date. We shall begin loading in car lots on Monday and by the middle of next week shall be harvesting five or six loads daily. Aside from 150 to 175 car loads of peaches to get off the next month we have 150 acres of cantaloupes, the finest we have ever grown, that are likely to turn out thirty to forty car loads from the 4th to the 18th of July, or just ahead of the Elberta peach sea- son, which will be from the 18th to 25th of July,
 Not quite so many Elbertas in Geor- gia this year as last, but they promise to be larger and better. so that with a continuation of present fine weather your northern markets are sure to be fully supplied with extra fine fruits from Georgia all through July.
 High price of cotton last year tempted heavy planting this. A cool, rainy May made a backward season, and business of all kinds being good there Is a scarcity of labor to do the l hoeing Now that the heat of summer is forcing an excessive growth of grass and weeds, every one, men, women and | is In the fields from daylight | till dark, and fields that were grassy | a week ago, begin to look clean, and | In this section of Georgia at least | there promises to be a fine crop of corn ! and cotton.
 "Wanting 800 extra laborers here in the orchar next week. I sent agents | nto the black belt of Alabama and | south Georgia; they report cotton very ate and quite grassy, yet an extra rush of culture going on that will clean It up in good shape by the first of July.
 Peach business Is tempting, how ,ver, and many are leaving the plan .ations for the six weeks of cash work II the orchards.
 Fort Valley and the adjoining town ,f Marshallville will give orchard em- oloyment to 5000 outside hands dur ng the month of July. Many of our come 5000 miles from south where during the winter and bring they pack vegetables; coming lere is their only summer outing, With co or 800 people camped on the place, music in the shed daily, and little un about the camps in the evening, here is considerable sport mixed in with a lot of hard work of great ,each harvest"