AKEBIA 



ALABAMA 



39 



and peat. In Japan the fr., which is very showy, but 

 with us rarely produced, is eaten, and the stems are 

 much used for wicker-work. Prop, by seeds, by green- 

 wood or hardwood cuttings, and 

 also by root division and layers. 



quinita, Decaisne. Pigs. 56, 

 57. Climbing 12 ft. or more: leaf- 

 lets 5, oval or oblong-obovate, 

 entire, emarginate, 1-2 in. long : 

 fls. fragrant, the pistillate pur- 

 plish brown, about 1 in. broad, the 

 staminate smaller, rosy purple, 

 in early spring : berry oblong, 3-5 

 in. long, dark purple with glau- 

 cous bloom, seeds black.— Hardy, 

 handsome, not attacked by'insects 

 or fungi. Very graceful and de- 

 sirable. China, Japan. B.B. 33 : 

 28. B.M. 4864. G.P. 4:137. A.G. 

 March, 1891, Pigs. 5, 7, and plate. 

 E.H. 1853:141. S.Z. 77. 



lob^ta, Decaisne. Leaflets 

 broadly ovate, 

 coarsely crenate : 

 fls. in long racemes , 

 smaller than those 

 of A. quinata. Ja- 

 pan, China. B.M. 

 7485. A.G. March, 

 1891, p. 140. S.Z.I: 

 78.— A. clematifdlia 

 and A. quercifblia, 

 Sieb. & Zucc, are 

 probably only va- 

 rieties of this spe- 

 cies. 



Alfred Rehdeb. 



ALABAMA, HOBTICtTL- 

 TUKE IN. Pig. 58. Commer- 

 cial horticulture has not as- 

 sumed the proportions in Ala- 

 bama that it has in the neigh- 

 boring southern states. This 

 must be largely due to acci- 

 dental causes, since in soils, 

 climate and transportation 

 facilities the state presents 

 conditions fully equal to any 

 of the others. At present the 

 most important horticultural 

 centers are at the extreme 

 northern and southern ends 



of the state. Mobile has long been known as one of the 

 chief sources of supply for early vegetables for the 

 northei'n and western markets, and the truck business is 

 gradually extending from Mobile county to the adjoin- 

 ing counties of Baldwin and Washington. Early cab- 

 bage and Irish potatoes are the most important crops, 

 though snap beans, peas, radishes, and many other vege- 

 tables are grown in considerable quantities. The tomato, 

 so important a market crop in many southern localities , 

 is very little grown here, owing largely to the preva- 

 lence of bacteriosis, often called southern tomato blight. 



Huntsville, innorthernAlabama, has a large and flour- 

 ishing nursery business. Several large wholesale es- 

 tablishments are located there, and the fertile Tennes- 

 see River Valley lands prove to be admirably adapted to 

 the growth of a good quality of nursery stock. Over 

 1,300 acres are now devoted to this business in this 

 neighborhood, the annual shipments fill 150 ears, includ- 

 ing 1,500,000 fruit trees, besides roses and other orna- 

 mentals ; and the sum of $40,000 is paid out annually for 

 labor. 



Beginnings have been made in fruit and vegetable 

 growing at various other points in the state, particularly 

 at Cullman, Montgomery, and Evergreen, on the Louis- 

 ville and Nashville railroad, and at Pruithurst, in north- 

 eastern Alabama, on the Southern railway. No data have 

 been secured as to the total shipment from these various 

 points, but the combined amount is very small, as com- 

 pared with those from the MobOe region. One road, the 



57. Akebia vine. 



Mobile and Ohio, forwarded 343 cars of home-grown 

 fruits and vegetables from the Mobile depot during 1897. 

 These figures do not include the shipments from other 

 stations on this line, nor those carried by the Louisville 

 and Nashville. 



Such, in brief, is the present status of commercial 

 horticulture in Alabama. In attempting to outline the 

 possibilities of its future development, it will be neces- 

 sary to glance at some of the more prominent topograph- 

 ical features of the state. Por our purpose, it may be 

 roughly divided into four regions. First, at the north is 

 the Tennessee River region, or, as it is often called, the 

 grain belt (Pig. 58, A). Its strong clay soils produce 

 abundant crops of corn, wheat, clover and timothy, and 

 were originally covered by a heavy growth of hardwood 

 timber. Next comes the mineral belt (B), including the 

 mountain region of northeast Alabama, and extending 

 in an irregular way nearly across the state to its western 

 border. This is a large region, containing a great variety 

 of soils, ranging from rich creek and river bottoms, and 

 the fertile red soils characteristic of the Piedmont region 

 of Georgia, to barren sands and sterile, rocky hillsides. 

 The surface is very much broken, and great areas are 

 still covered with the original forests of mixed pine and 

 hard woods. Below the mountain country, and forming 

 an irregular belt or girdle across the middle of the state, 

 is the prairie region (Pig. 58, C). This is narrow at the 

 east, where the mountains press farthest southward, but 

 broadens out toward the western border. The soil varies, 

 in some places being light and sandy, but for the most 

 part it is a dark, retentive loam, resembling that of the 

 northern prairies. While cotton is a staple crop in all 

 parts of the state, this is preeminently the cotton belt. 

 Below the prairie comes the timber belt (D), covering the 

 southern third of the state, and extending to the Gulf. 

 Before the advent of the lumberman this extensive re- 



58. Horticultural 



reeions of Alabama. 



gion was an unbroken forest of long-leaf yellow pine, 

 with magnolias and other broad-leaved evergreens bor- 

 dering the water courses. The surface is rolling, or in 



