THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 47 



CLIMATIC ADVANTAGES. 



Then comes the question of chmate. Evergreen is not so 

 many miles moved from the warm waters of Mobile Bay. It 

 is high above the waters' of the bay on a ridge, but the balmy 

 breezes from the bay give an equable climate in the summer 

 months and minimize the dang'ers of frost and freezes almost 

 to nothing. They have no disastrous frosts here. 



"I 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 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 Ever- 

 green in i88q by Colonel E. M. Rumph. of Marshalville, 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 encour- 

 age fruit and vegetable growing in South Alabama. Colonel 

 Rumph after two or three years in Evergreen returned to Geor- 

 gia. The orchard is' now owned by a Chicago corporation. 

 It has not received the care and attention that it needed in 

 the past year or two, but notwithstanding that it continues to 

 give forth good returns and is a valuable piece of property. 



The orchard is made up of trees that bear the "Slappey" 

 peach." Colonel Rumph brought the Slappey peach to the Ev- 

 ergreen section and it has monopolized the peach orchards here- 

 pbouts. It is considered the aristocrat of peaches and no other 

 peaches' are considered worth while. 



"The Slappev peach" is a yellow, free stone peach of gen- 

 erous proportions. It is hardy and it ripens for market 

 earlier than any of the other varieties which are shipped north- 

 ward. It is a good shipper. Wherever it has been put in the 

 market the retainers and the commission merchants have wired 

 back the order "more ;" th* "Slappey" peach growers have been 

 assured by the commission men that they can sell all the 

 "Slappey peaches" they can raise at a good figure 



Asked to define the excellence of the Slappey varietv a 

 peach growei said: "The difference at one time was a dollar 

 a crate between it and the Elberta peach. For awhile during 



