248 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 382. 



excellent plants for the next season's use. In storing the plants 

 for winter the pots containing the roots should be laid on their 

 sides on the floor of a temperate house, where they will keep 

 moderately dry. 



Gloxinias may be propagated in various ways. When more 

 than one growth appears on a crown the extra ones can be 

 taken off and rooted, and these growths make almost as 

 good plants as those from which they were taken. Another 

 method, and probably the best one, is to take the mature 

 leaves, with pieces of the stalks attached, and place the under 

 surfaces downward in boxes of clean sharp sand. The stalks 

 of the leaves should be inserted in the sand, and the midrib of 

 each leaf may be cut transversely two or three times. At each 

 of these cuts and at the end of the stalk little bulbs will form, 

 but no leaves will appear on them during the first season. As 

 soon as the old leaves shrivel up these little bulbs should be 

 collected and stored in dry sand until they are wanted the fol- 

 lowing spring. These two methods of propagation are the 

 best for the perpetuation of good varieties. Raising plants 

 from seed is an operation which requires great care, as the 

 plants in the seedling stage are very easily ruined by too much 

 or too little water. 



Botanic Garden, Washington. lj-. It, U. 



Correspondence. 



Peach-growing- in Georgia. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — A few weeks ago, when in the Georgia fruit-belt, some 

 of the early varieties of Peaches were just beginning to show 

 a faint blush, but the season this year is at least two weeks 

 later than usual. Many growers expected to ship peaches by 

 the first of June, but it is doubtful if mature Georgia peaches 

 will be seen in northern markets tliis year before the middle 

 of June. 



The sudden rise and growth of the Georgia Peach-belt is 

 one of the most interesting facts in the recent history of fruit- 

 culture. Tlie crop from Georgia now rules the markets until 

 the Delaware crop comes. It is less than ten years since the 

 first large shipment of peaches was made from Georgia to 

 northern markets, and yet within this lime the Georgia peach 

 has obtained as wide a reputation as the Georgia watermelon. 

 There are several Peach-growing sections in the state, but the 

 most extensive orchards are located in Houston and Macon 

 Counties, in middle Georgia. The Rumph Peach orchard at 

 Marshallville is said to be the largest one in the state. It con- 

 tains about 94,000 trees, and when in full blossom it is worth 

 going miles to see. 



There is now a boom in peach-growing in Georgia. The 

 profits of some fortunate growers have tempted hundreds of 

 people to go into the fruit business, and it is estimated that 

 1,000,000 Peach-trees have been planted in the past twoor three 

 years in the Peach-belt alone. Meanwhile, the rage for fruit- 

 growing, especially peaches, has spread with great rapidity in 

 other sections of the state. There is now a regular fruit-belt 

 extending directly south from Macon one hundred and fifty 

 miles. It follows in the main the line of the Georgia Southern 

 and Florida Railroad. A few years ago this region was a 

 tract of timber-land, and in this stretch of one hundred and 

 fifty miles it is doubtful if 3,000 acres were cleared and used 

 for agricultural purposes. Inhabited by lumbermen and tur- 

 pentine workers, this whole area was regarded as worthless for 

 fruit-growing or for farming. 



Now, if you visit the country from Macon to Valdosta you 

 will find the landscape dotted with orchard after orchard. 

 There are also several thousand acres of vineyards in this 

 section. It is estimated that 500,000 Peach-trees have been 

 set out at various points along the Georgia Southern and Flor- 

 ida Railroad witliin the past three or four years. Orchards 

 covering one hundred acres are not uncommon, and those 

 who make peaches their chief crop have from 20,000 to 80,000 

 trees. Some of the large Peach orchards in this section are 

 the Elberta Orchard Company, at Avondale, with 40,000 Peach- 

 trees ; the Odk Ridge Fruit Company, at Kathleen, has 30,000 

 trees; the Tivoli Fruit Company, at Tivoli, has 80,000 trees; 

 the Model Farm, at Cyclonetta, has 40,000 trees ; at Tifton 

 there are the orchards of the Tift Fruit Company, containing 

 45,000 trees, of H. H. and W. O. Tift, containing 10,000 trees, 

 and the W. O. Tift orchard of 20,000 trees. 



The Model Farm at Cyclonetta, which comprises about 

 1,200 acres, has, besides 40,000 Peach-trees, 5,000 Pear-trees 

 and a vineyard of 10,000 vines. There is an experimental 

 station at this place, and many systematic tests have been 

 made with the soil in order to show its qualities. Mr. D. G. 



Irby, manager of the farm, states that results demonstrate that 

 the chocolate soil of Georgia has valuable properties that have 

 not generally been understood. This chocolate color is a 

 familar sight all the way from Macon to Valdosta. It is a 

 loam with a red clay subsoil ; it is easily worked, and the sub- 

 soil seems to hold moisture for a long time. Some fertilizers 

 are used which contain potash and phosphate. Most of the 

 nitrogen is supplied cheaply by growing leguminous crops, 

 such as Clover, Peas, etc. In the southern part of the state the 

 soil is sandy, and requires more care. 



The varieties of Peaches grown in the Georgia orchards, and 

 the order in which they are shipped to market, are Alexander, 

 Waterloo and Shumaker, about June ist ; Early Rivers, Tillot- 

 son. Mountain Rose and Lady Ingold, from the loth to 25th of 

 June ; Early Crawford, Elberta, Stump the World and Dia- 

 mond, from the 15th of July to August ist ; the late Crawfords 

 last till August 15th. 



The Elberta is now the favorite variety. More trees of this 

 variety have been set out within the last three or four years 

 than of all other kinds together. The Elberta is a large hand- 

 some peach with dark red cheeks. It has a fine flavor, and 

 arrives in market in good condition. 



The growing of peaches in Georgia has been at times so 

 profitable that northern capital has been attracted to the in- 

 dustry. In fact, some of the largest orchards in the state are 

 owned by northern people. Many stories are current con- 

 cerning the fortunes made in peach-growing, and some of 

 these must be taken with a grain of allowance. One company 

 which controls a Peach-orchard of 200 acres is said to have 

 cleared, two years ago, $150 net per acre, or $30,000. Another 

 company is supposed to have done just as well from an 

 orchard of 350 acres. The small growers of peaches make 

 money in good seasons. One grower from Ohio with ten 

 acres told me that he sold his crop two years ago on the tree 

 for $2,000. 



The early Georgia peaches reach northern markets when 

 prices are the highest. They come just before the California 

 peaches arrive by the car-loads, and the Georgia growers have 

 the advantage of being much nearer to market than their 

 western competitors. They claim that their fruit is superior in 

 quality to the California product. The prices realized range 

 from fifty cents to one dollar per crate of three pecks, while 

 later on in the season the markets often become glutted, and 

 peaches sell as low as fifteen and twenty cents a basket. The 

 owners of Peach-orchards in Georgia are fearful of the yel- 

 lows, which has nfined the trees in other Peach districts, but 

 thus far they have escaped any serious damage. 



New York. L. J. Vance. 



Western New York Notes. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — The state of New York has long been famous for its 

 apples. There is no well-defined Apple-belt in its western coun- 

 ties, the orchards being scattered over the entire area upon 

 almost every farm. The most continuous and important 

 plantings, however, lie in a long area upon the north, running 

 nearly parallel with the general direction of Lake Ontario. 

 This l.)elt comprises the greater part of the counties of Wayne 

 — beginning at the east — Monroe, Orleans and Niagara, One 

 traverses these orchard areas if he passes over the Niagara 

 Falls Division of the New York Central Railroad from the Falls 

 to Rochester, over the main line of the Central from Rochester 

 to Syracuse, and, nearer the Lake, if he rides over the Rome, 

 Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad from Niagara Falls to 

 Syracuse. The traveler will probably be more impressed with 

 the extent of the orchard-planting by taking the first of the 

 routes here mentioned, from Niagara Falls to Rochester. 

 There are also very large Apple areas in Ontario, Seneca and 

 Cayuga Counties, an area which one crosses upon the Auburn 

 Division of the Central Railroad from Rochester to Syracuse, 

 passing through Canandaigua and Geneva. 



These Apple-lands have lieen very profitable, as a rule, until 

 within the past few years. In fact, apples have been the lead- 

 ing " money crop " in a large part of western New York. "A 

 crop of apples is like a gift," an old farmer in Orleans County 

 said to me a few days ago. There is more meaning in this 

 remark than he intended. It really explains, to my mind, the 

 chief cause of the recent failures of the crop. If a thing is a 

 gift, there has necessarily been no effort expended to secure 

 it. The fact is that the greater part of the Apple-lands of west- 

 ern New York have been cropped with hay or other things 

 from the time the orchards were set, and very little plant-food 

 has been returned to the soil. The system of cultivation — the 

 growing of Grass and sowed crops — is also the one which is 



