206 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
A GREAT SOUTHERN ORCHARD. 
A very observing correspondent of the Hartford (Ct.) 
Homestead^ gives us the following description of the mam- 
moth orchard of Col. John Hebron, of Warren county, 
Miss, What other planter of large means, will be the 
first to follow this noble example % 
I saw so much of fruit culture in this county, while here 
a few weeks since,. that I determined to re-visit it, at my 
earliest convenience. This plantation is deservedly cele- 
brated in all this region for its pear and peach orchards, 
and is well known among fruit sellers from Chicago to 
New Orleans. It lies about three miles north of the Jack- 
son and Vicksburg Railroad, and about nine miles east 
of the latter city. There is nothing peculiar in the soil 
or location to have made it congenial to fruit. Any other 
equal number of acres in the county would probably show 
as satifactory results could they have similar treatment. 
The road hither leads along one of the. tributaries of the 
Big-Black River, a pretty stream for this part of the coun- 
try, and rejoicing in comparatively clear water, when it 
is not swollen by rains. On either hand are the steep 
hillsides, peculiar to this county, broken in many places 
with gullies, but exceedingly fertile wherever the seed 
can find lodgment* The bottom lands, where they have 
not been cleared, are covered with timber of enormous 
growth, so large and so tall that one accustomed only to 
the second and third growth of New England farms, is 
overwhelmed with astonishment, and finds it difficult to 
pass by. The banks had caved, in many places, reveal- 
ing a clean section of the soil, for eight or ten feet deep. 
One could see in the three or four feet of alluvial deposit, 
the secret of the tall trunks, and massive foliage above. 
The approach to the mansion is through a lane some 
two miles from the highway. The soil has been subject- 
ed to the careless cultivation of the South, cotton and corn 
in endless succession, without manure or the turning in 
of green crops. The vegetable matter in the soil is pret- 
ty much used up, and the fields in many places look yel- 
low and barren. It was a delightful contrast to the awful 
monotony of cotton fields, to come to the borders of this 
plantation, where a pear orchard begins, and stretches in 
unbroken succession for a half mile or more to the man- 
sion. The proprietor lays claim to 
THE LARGEST PEAR ORCHARD IN THE COUNTRY. 
It covers a hundred acres, and is extending its borders 
every year. He is so well satisfied with the profits of 
fruit growing, and finds the market so much beyond his 
ability to supply, that he is gradually curtailing his other 
crops, and giving his attention to fruit. 
Col. Hebron is a Virginia gentleman of the old school, 
and first came to this country in 1836. He immediately 
began to plant fruit trees, without any further thought 
than supplying his own hands and stock. The peach 
trees raised from the pit were loaded with fruit, year after 
year, before he thought of selling them. At length a 
colored man, who was acquainted with the New Orleans 
market, bought five barrels of him for fifty dollars. When 
he learned that the speculator had sold then for twenty- 
nine dollars a barrel, his eyes were opened to a better 
business than raising cotton. There was a call for trees 
as well as fruit, and for apples and pears as well as peach- 
es, until the nursery and fruit business has taken the lead 
of cotton. The supply of fruit trees first came from the 
North, but were not found to be well adapted to the cli 
mate. Southern varieties, grown upon stocks raised 
here, uniformly give better apples, and seedling pear 
stocks do much better than Northern trees. The varieties 
of pears most largely planted are the Bartlett and Beurre 
Diel. They grow under ordinary cultivation to a much 
larger siEe than at the North, and are said to be of equal- 
ly fine quality. The first pear trees were put out in 1840, 
but the larger part of the orchard is not over eight years 
old. The trees are now set at twenty feet apart, and the 
ground between is cultivated and cropped principally 
with cotton. Though this cropping does not seem to 
have marred the result in this instance, we apprehend 
that the time is not distant, when the trees will show 
their need of the aliment that has been abstracted by the 
hoed crops. The only preparation of the soil for planting 
the trees is plowing and preparing a border of compost 
from the forest where the tree stands, 
THE PEAR BLIGHT, 
The pear blight is visible in all parts of the orchard, and 
it remains to be seen, whether this fruit will be more free 
from disease in this climate than with us. The tree un- 
questionably grows more rapidly, bears earlier, and gives 
a larger fruit. This blight, it is claimed, was occasioned 
by a severe frost, on the 5th of April, 1857. It was so 
cold that all the fruit in the region was cut off. Many of 
the trees were killed down to the roots, and the majority 
of them were more or less affected. The Bartletts suffer- 
ed more than other varieties. This may be owing to the 
fact that little attention has been paid to this fruit, or to a 
change of climate, owing to the clearing up of the forests. 
It is certainly to be apprehended, that as these shelters 
are removed, the climate will be more liable to sudden 
changes, and blight will be one of the hindrances to pear 
culture, even in this favored region. 
The orchard was fast becoming remunerativa when it 
was overtaken with this calamity. From two hundred 
and fifty trees, five thousand dollars worth of fruit were 
sold in a single season. They are put up in boxes of three 
pecks each, and sold for four dollars, delivered at Vicks- 
burg. The whole amount of sales for all kinds of fruit 
reach seven thousand dollars in favorable seasons. The 
trees are now in bloom, and give promise of a full crop. 
A PEACH ORCHARD. 
There are twenty acres occupied with peach trees, that 
have been planted three years. They are now thick set 
with fruit, about the size of cranberries. The trees are all 
of a few select varieties, so as to give a succession for 
nlarket from the 10th of June till October. This long sea- 
son of the peach crop gives the Southern fruit grower a 
great advantage over the Northern. The pears come 
nearly a month earlier, and continue later, so that with a 
suitable selection of varieties, there would be no difficulty 
in sending them to market lor seven months in the year. 
The peach is more generally planted in all this region, 
and from what I can learn, in all the upland districts of 
the South, than any other fruit tree. They appear uni- 
formly healthy, and all the trees that 1 have noticed in 
this and in the adjoining county, have been loaded with 
fruit. Until quite recently, the South has had few 
nurserymen, and the peach has been almost uniformly 
propagated from the stone. On the contrary, almost all 
our trees have been propagated in nurseries by budding. 
Even those who have raised their own trees, have budded 
them. The stones of such peaches as are marketed, gener- 
ally picked before they are ripe, are planted for stocks, 
both in the nursery and in home culture. The facts are, 
that all over the North, both with the nursery and home 
grown trees, the peach is shortlived, and hardly pays 
for planting. It would b*e, perhaps, too much to say, that 
this diseased condition comes of the mode of propagation, 
but it certainly looks very much like it. The fects cer- 
tainly ought to be studied by our fruit growers. It is an 
experiment worth trying, to plant peach stones from 
Southern plantations, where they have been grown for 
generations from the stones, and see if we cannot intro- 
duce healthy stocks. If this fruit can be restored to its 
former health and productiveness, it will be worth millions 
of dollars to Connecticut, to say nothing of the larger 
