The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1917-11-16
WHY THE PEACH BUSINESS
WENT BACKWARD FOR
AWHILE

kcept on an extensive scale. Under
such conditions, it is not to be won
dered at that some very large or
chards of peaches were developed in
certain sections OF this state There
vas certain five acre tract that at
one time produced seven carloads OF
peaches in one year, this being the
statement of the owner OF the five
acres. The product OF this five
acres was Immediately multiplied by
other acres, and this gentleman now
has hundreds OF acres in peach orr
chards, the idea being that if five
acres would produce seven carloads
five hundred acres would produce
seven hundred carloads.
After tie large orchards were de-
veloped, the owners began to .rccog-
nize they had gone into business
about which they knew but little In
sects and diseases appeared, and il
took lots of money to control these;
in fact, at one time there were some
that could not be controlled by any
known methods, where they were not
| controlled the trees were killed in
large numbers The question Of labor
became important The unskilled ne
gro Of the cotton field did not make
good handler of tender fruit
AS crops matured the selling prob
lem became acute. Normally, the
Georgia peach grower ha dloaded his
cotton on two wagons, hauled it to
town and disposed OF it at nearby
warehouses to a ready market. There
was no such way to dispose of the
peaches. They would not keep, they
had to be handled hurricdly and the
man who had had his market at his
door for an almost non-pcrishable
crop, such as cotton, found his lands
producing juicy, luscious, pcrishable
peach, and it was necessary for him
to select market in which to dis
pose Of his crop. Hurriedly these
markets were sought, hurriedly were
the peaches gathered from the trees
and packed pell-mell into crates and
boxs and shipped to various centers
in the hope that they might sell when
they arrived. Often the fruit arrived
in poor condition and the shipper was
called on to pay the freight Often the
market was glutted. and there were
more peaches on the tracks than
could possibly be handled in that
center, consequently low prices were
received. oftentimes nothing. Con-
ditienS became worse and worse, and
when the enormous crop of 1908 was
produced there were thousands of
bushels of fruit dumed into rivers
and allowed to rot on side tracks
through lack of transportation facili-
ties, through glutted markets and
through the packing and shipping of
inferior stuff that should never have
left the orchard Georgia has made
for herself a rather poor reputation
on the markets by this time, and
many large orchards that had been
planted in haste and the owners Of
which had dreamed dreams OF fabu-
lous wealth in time to come, were
found to be non-prohtable and great
wall went up that there were no mo-
ney in peaches.
For few years before 1908 and
for some years after the sound of the
axe was heard in many Georgia or
ciards and thousands and millions of
traces were cut down, being removed
in order that other crops might take
the place of the peach orchards 1t
looked for time as if the peach bust
ness was going to be wiped out of the
state, but there was still left some
wise heads, who recognized there was
plenty of money and profit in peac
growing, provided it was done right
and handled along business lines. The
Georgia Fruit Exchange was organic
ed, ard the dissemination OF fruit was
better. No longer did New York and
Philadelphia get thirty per cent of
the Georgia output, but it was dissem-
mated to other places. The lesson
had been learned, the methods of
glowing improved and it was under
stood 10 make money out of peaches
required a knowledge Of how to grow
fruit, how to harvest it, and how to
pack it ard how to market it in a
bu>incsslike manner. 1t was under
stood that it required money and
brains to develop the very large peach
orchards for which Georgia has been
noted. Many orchards were reduced
III size, many growers have since
planted our new orchards, and now
the peach business has reached a sta
BILE, profitable firm foundation and is
developing into one OF the large in
dustries of the state.
The above article was prepared by
Prof + II Mediation Dan.-..,,....