190 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



varieties of the apple can be successfully grown there, and those 

 only under somewhat exceptional conditions of soil and manage- 

 ment. The experiment has been pretty thoroughly tried. Georgia 

 is not a new state, and the mere fact that nearly all the apples to be 

 found there in mid-winter, are from Michigan, is evidence enough. 



There appeared to be quite a general inclination on the part of 

 those having experience, to ascribe exceptional qualities of hardi- 

 ness, productiveness and long keeping, to a single variety, the 

 " Shockley," which now enjoys in Georgia and other southern 

 states, a peculiar and growing popularity. It is not an apple of 

 more than fair quality, but it is in other respects very desirable for 

 that latitude, especially in its keeping qualities, and finds a ready 

 sale at a fair price, in Atlanta and other southern cities. I visited 

 and carefully inspected, two or three times, a fine orchard of some 

 one thousand two hundred trees, half or more Sbockleys, two or 

 three miles south of Marietta. These trees were about a dozen 

 years old, and in thrifty appearance and beauty, with few excep- 

 tions; all that could be expected or desired in any locality, north or 

 south. They covered nearly forty acres of ground, while another 

 forty acre lot had been, two or three years before, planted exclu- 

 sively with Shockleys, and the young trees here would have de- 

 lighted the professional eye of any northern nurseryman. 



Pears were formerly grown with excellent success in Middle and 

 Northern Georgia, but the blight has apparently swept off most of 

 the old trees. I saw but very few pear trees, and they had gener- 

 ally a despairing look. Sweet cherries, and the finer plums, are 

 not successfully grown, but figs do well, even in the hill country, 

 and still better in Middle and Southern Georgia. Blackberries and 

 raspberries are very abundant, and strawberries yield large returns 

 to fair culture, without the necessity of any winter covering. 

 Certain varieties of the grape do well, particularly the Scupernong, 

 an excellent wine grape, and quite generally grown. 

 [jf Of more purely agricultural products, I found, to my surprise, 

 cotton to be the leading staple, even in the northern counties I 

 visited, and chiefly relied upon as the money crop, although it affords, 

 at its present price, rather scanty returns for the great labor and 

 care it exacts. Wheat is also grown to a considerable extent, said 

 to be unsurpassed in quality, and bringing, as it did, twenty or 

 twenty-five cents more per bushel in the Marietta market, than the 



