NORTH AMERICAN STATES 



NORTH AMERICAN STATES 2227 



especially the sweet potato, thrive throughout this 

 whole section; there is, however, little trucking, except 

 for local markets. 



3. The Southern region takes in the lower half of the 

 Coastal Plain, and extends across the whole state from 

 the Okeefeenokee Swamp, west. This region is espe- 

 cially noted for its melons, pecans, and Kieffer pears. 

 Some trucking for early market is done and the indus- 

 try is growing. Figs grow exceptionally well in this 

 section, and there are numerous citrous trees in the 

 southern tier of counties that have produced fruits 

 for some years past without protection. 



4. The Coast region takes in the tier of counties 

 along the coast, and extends from South Carolina to 

 Florida; it is the smallest section of the state. Figs are 

 here found at their best, and various citrous fruits 

 grow well on the islands; at one time the indigo and 

 olive were cultivated on these same islands, but now 

 their culture has been abandoned. Trucking is followed 

 in this region for the northern market, strawberries, 

 onions, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, and peas being 

 the main crops. 



Georgia is the mother state of the Elberta peach, 

 the Belle, Waddell, and several others of commercial 

 importance. Fifty-five apples have originated within 

 its borders, the most prominent of which are the Yates, 

 Terry, Shockley and Nick-a-jack. The LeConte is its 

 addition to the list of pears; it has added the Georgia 

 Giant, the Atlanta, the Senator and others to the 

 pecans, and its best-known melon is the Georgia 

 Rattlesnake. 



At the present time the greatest horticultural indus- 

 try in the state is the peach business, and second to 

 that come the melons. The apple industry is rapidly 

 coming to the fore, and in several sections specialized 

 trucking interests are growing up. Georgia is well 

 infested with diseases and insects, and consequently, the 

 growers find that constant spraying is essential to 

 success. For several years orchards have been sadly 

 neglected, mainly because they were larger than could 

 be well taken care of, but that time is now past, and 

 improved methods are rapidly taking their proper 

 places. 



There has been a slight decrease in the number of 

 peach trees during the last decade; those removed, 

 however, were old or neglected trees, which materially 

 reduced the yield to a tree. The peach crop of 1908 was 

 the largest in the history of the state, being about 

 7,000 carloads. In 1909 the crop was 904 carloads, and 

 in 1910 the state shipped 6,289 carloads. The apple 

 industry is rapidly increasing, thousands of trees being 

 planted every year. The pecan interests are also enlarg- 

 ing; although the Census shows only 75,519 bearing 

 trees, there are, young and old, 400,000 or more now 

 growing in the state. 



Small-fruits are not of so much importance, straw- 

 berries being the most widely grown. 



The trucking interests are on the increase, propor- 

 tionally as the pine forests of the southern part of the 

 state are cleared up and settlers take charge of the 

 warm sandy lands. 



One of the promising new vegetable industries is the 

 raising of asparagus, which is being carried on around 

 Fort Valley and Marshallville. The raising of early 

 truck in the southern parts of the state is now a well- 

 established business, and a late truck industry is grow- 

 ing up in the mountain sections of the north. This 

 latter interest is going hand in hand with the apple 

 business. 



The nursery interests of the state are fairly large, but 

 only some three or four concerns have attained any 

 great prominence. 



Probably the two best^known horticultural products 

 are the Georgia peach and the Georgia watermelon. 

 The introduction of the refrigerator car made the con- 

 version of cotton fields into peach orchards a possibility. 



Cheap lands and cheap labor combined with a favorable 

 climate helped in the planting of the enormous orchards 

 that the state is noted for. The industry has now under- 

 gone the extensive stage and is rapidly becoming inten- 

 sive. The melon business seemed to be natural to the 

 soil and climate; it has attained vast proportions and is 

 becoming more remunerative through the use of better 

 methods. 



Pecan-growing is now one of the most important 

 new industries of the state; there are several instances 

 on record where bearing orchards have been sold for as 

 much as $1,000 an acre. The apple orchards in the 

 northern part of the state are vying with the pecans in 

 public interest; lands in the mountains that could be 

 purchased for $1 to $5 an acre twenty years ago are 

 now being sold for $25 to $100 an acre for apple 

 purposes. Numerous large orchards have been 

 planted, but most of the plantings are small and 

 are being brought into bearing along the most im- 

 proved lines. 



Horticultural collections and parks are scarce, those 

 worthy of note being the Nurseries and Evergreen 

 Collection of the Fruitland Nursery Company, near 

 Augusta. The Ferrell Gardens, at LaGrange, are of 

 particular interest, as they are the only remaining 

 specimen of the old colonial landscape architecture. 

 The Payne and Wade estates, near Thomasville, are 

 magnificent examples of present-day landscape gar- 

 dening, the former being noted for its collection of 



Georgia has been fortunate in having a great many 

 individuals who have bent their efforts toward advan- 

 cing horticulture long before this matter was taken up 

 and given serious consideration by the authorities and 

 the powers of the state. Some of these men are : Jarvis 

 Van Buren, a native of Clarksville, who was especially 

 interested in the dissemination of the apple in that 

 section; James Camak, a native of Athens, who, with 

 Van Buren, revised and published the second edition 

 of "Gardening for the South," which was written by 

 Wm. N. White, a sketch of whose life may be found 

 in Volume III, p. 1602. P. J. Berckmans probably 

 stands out as one of the greatest advancers of southern 

 horticulture. He was a man of international reputa- 

 tion. A fuller discussion of his life may be found in 

 Volume III, p. 1565. Jas. B. Hunnicutt, the author of 

 "Agriculture for the Common Schools," and for a 

 long time editor of the "Southern Cultivator," is also 

 a man whose life work was mainly given for the advance- 

 ment of Georgia's agriculture, but his paper always 

 carried a horticultural section in which he was particu- 

 larly interested. 



Public-service agencies for horticulture. 



The Land-Grant College of Georgia was opened in 

 1872 as a subdivision of the University of Georgia in 

 Athens. In 1906 the Conner bill was passed by the 

 Legislature of Georgia reorganizing this institution. 

 The reorganization took place in 1907. At the time of 

 the reorganization the department of horticulture in the 

 old College of Agriculture had one instructor in charge 

 with very meager equipment. At the present time the 

 department consists of three faculty members. The 

 department of horticulture is also represented in the 

 graduate school of the University of Georgia. 



The Georgia Experiment Station was originally 

 located in Athens in 1888; in 1889 it was removed from 

 under the Board of the University of Georgia and 

 placed under a special Board appointed by the Gov- 

 ernor and located at Experiment, two miles from the 

 city of Griffin. At present the Station has one horti- 

 culturist, and there are twenty acres devoted to orchard 

 and truck plats, there being approximately 325 varie- 

 ties of fruits and the like represented. The strictly 

 horticultural publications of the Station are thirty-two 

 to the present date. 



