160 JOUENAL OF THE KOYAL HOKTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



The Peach orchards in Georgia form an interesting illustration of the 

 great extension of the commercial culture of fruit as a result of the 

 refrigerator-car service. It is rare in Georgia to find an orchard 

 containing less than 10,000 trees. The conditions of cultivation have 

 given rise to enormous orchards, such as the Hale Orchard Company, of 

 Fort Valley, Georgia, which contains 305,000 Peach trees, and from which 

 212 carloads of fruit were shipped in one season. There are a number of 

 large orchards in Georgia, and others may be found in various States, as 

 for instance the Alleghany Orchard Company, of West Virginia, which 

 has 170,000 Peach trees, or the Olden Fruit Company, of Missouri, who 

 have three square miles under cultivation, and the Stanford Vineyard 

 of California, containing nearly three thousand acres of European vines. 

 Orchards of three hundred acres in extent are not uncommon. It must 

 be understood, however, that the greater part of the fruit is grown in 

 orchards of less than three hundred acres ; and in the majority of districts 

 fruit farms of from ten, to one hundred acres are more common. Only 

 a few years ago most of the Oranges and Lemons used in the eastern part 

 of the United States were produced in foreign countries. Now, as a result 

 of the use of refrigeration cars, almost the entire Orange crop used in 

 American cities is grown in Florida and California, and shipped in 

 refrigerator-cars. The Orange industry, however, has developed in a 

 rather different way from the Peach and Apple industries. Both in 

 California and Florida the greater part of tbis fruit is produced in com- 

 paratively small orchards or groves. It is sold on the spot and shipped by 

 3ompanies. There are, of course, some instances of very extensive orange 

 groves being under a single management and where the shipments are 

 made by the grower. 



One of the most striking results of the refrigerating system is that 

 markets can be supplied with ' soft fruits ' grown at a distance for a much 

 longer period than heretofore ; for instance, the Strawberries used in the 

 cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago during the winter and early 

 spring months are grown in the warm regions of Florida and the south. 

 By the time the Strawberry crop in Florida is over, shipments are being 

 made from South Carolina and other places just north of Florida. When 

 the crop in these parts is finished, those again further north become avail- 

 able and are brought to market. This is taken advantage of to a marked 

 degree in the case of Peaches, Melons, Cantaloupes, Tomatos, and other fruits 

 and vegetables, so that at almost all seasons of the year such fresh fruits and 

 vegetables grown in the open air are to be found in our markets. In this 

 way fruit can be produced and placed on the market much cheaper than 

 it can be grown in hothouses, and the result has been a great extension in 

 the use of fruit. The enormous network of railways, equal to, if not 

 greater than, that of all other countries combined, greatly facilitates the 

 distribution of fruit and garden produce. In no other country, so far as 

 the writer can learn, are fruit and vegetables grown and handled so 

 extensively as in the United States. 



