The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-11
CONECUH LAND IS
 DEVOTED TO TRUCKING
Evergreen Farmers Are Planting Strawberries, Peaches and Vegetables and Are Decreasing
 Acreage of Heecy Staple.

bama hills as 1t ever did upon the red hills of Georgia. l And moeover the Alabama peach
 beats the Georgia peach to the North ern market by a week or ten days, a great advantage. The first car load of peaches that went into Chicago last May from all over the United States, was grown. packed and shipped from the big Stores orchard at Dolive, some
 distance south of Evergreen. True
 they were Elberta peaches, but they
 were equal in every particular to the
 Georgia F.berta and they reached the
 buyers two weeks earlier than did the
 delicate fruit from the State across the
 Chattahoochee.
 Peach growing Is as yet in its in-
 fancy in South Alabama, but unless clear headed business men who have
 put their money in the industry are
 wrong. 1t will. in the next four or five
 years. be grappling with the Georgia
 industry for supremacy. But the
 market Is wide and there are enough
 buyers to go round.
 The men who are planting peach
 trees around here by the thousands
 boldly proclaim that the Alabama
 promising of the future than the Georgia orchards. First of all 1t Is asserted that the soil about Evergreen Is equal to or better than that of south west or middle Georgia where peach growing has assumed wide proportions. It Is a sandy soil with a clay subsoil. The Evergreen peach growers do not hesitate to say that they think their soil Is better than the Georgia land. Climatic Advantages. Then comes the question of climate Eve tc moved from the warm waters of Mobile | Bay. It is high above the waters of | the bay on ridge. hut the balmy breezes from the bay give an equable | climate in the summer months and minimize the dangers of frost and l freezes almost to nothing. They have | no disastrous frosts here.
 T have been here five years" said
 Edward A. Beaven. who is large peach grower" and we have had a
 peach crop every year that I have been
 here"
 One more fact is reiterated, namely
 that peaches from Evergreen have been put upon the market as much as two
 weeks ahead of the Georgia peach of
 the same brand.
 The Rumph orchard was planted a
 few miles out of Evergreen in 1899 by l Colonel E. Ms Rumph. of Marshalville, l Ga, who has been called the Georgia | Peach King" The work was done | under the auspices of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, a road which has | done much to foster and encourage | fruit and vegetable growing in South Alabama. Colonel Rumph after two l or three years in Evergreen returned | to Georgia. The orchard is now owned by Chicago corporation. It has not received the care and attention that 1t | needed in the past year or two, but notwithstanding that it continues to give forth good returns and Is a valua- ble piece of property.
 The orchard is made up of trees that bear the 'Sloppey beach," Colonel Rumph brought the Sloppey peach to the Evergreen section and sit has monopolized the peach orchards here abouts. It Is considered the aristocrat | of peaches and no other peaches are considered worth while.
 "The "Sloppey peach" is a yellow. free
 stone peach of generous proportions. It | Is hardy and 1t ripens for market | earlier than any of the other varieties | which are shipped northward. It is a | good shipper. Wherever it has been | put In the market the retailers and the | commission merchants have wired back | the order "more," The 'Sloppey" peach l growers have been assured by the com | mission men that they can sell all the l "Sloppey peaches" they can raise at A | good figure.
 Asked to define the excellence of the Sloppey variety a peach grower said: '"The difference at one time was a
 dollar a crate between 1t and the FL