FRUIT REPORTS. 
159 
later blooming kinds like Red June, Abundance and Chabot escaped without 
injury to the tree, but in most cases with loss of this year’s crop. In some 
localities these kinds bore partial crops. 
It has been impossible for me to gather any reliable statistics as to the 
acreage or market value of our fruit crops. That the interest is a very small 
one as compared with neighboring states is shown by the fact that there 
are not more than three or four points in the State where solid cars of fruit 
have ever been loaded for shipment. 
ALABAMA, BALDWIN COUNTY. 
BY W. W. JONES, SEMINOLE. 
I submit herewith such information as I have been able to gather from 
reliable sources in this (Baldwin) county, with one item in regard to Fruitdale, 
Alabama, on the M. & C. R. R., and also an approximate estimate of peaches 
shipped from Washington county last year. One thousand acres will be 
planted to peaches in this section. 
2. Soil. Sandy loam, with clay foundation, but not too retentive, allowing 
percolation of excessive rainfall to some extent and 150 to 300 feet elevation. 
From $2.50 to $10.00 per acre for raw land according to location, conditions, 
etc.; $40.00 per acre for bearing orchard. 
3. Varieties: Plums. Abundance**, Burbank** and Simonii**, though all 
Japan types seem to be in congenial soil, etc. Peaches — Elberta for late and 
St.^John for early. Of course all fruits adapted to our locality do well. I 
would especially recommend the Scuppernongs family of grapes as worthy of 
extensive planting for commercial purposes. Pecans are at home with us. 
Pears are, of course, subject to blight. Japan persimmons grow and bear 
finely. 
4. Cultivation.— Fair to thorough cultivation given by’ owners. Potatoes, 
melons, peas and garden truck are grown in young orchards. 
5. My own practice has been to cultivate thoroughly in July, then sow 
in cow peas, and allow pea vines, grass, clover, etc., to lay on the ground 
all winter and plow in the spring. This prevents washing and leaching of 
soil, and helps its mechanical condition, adds humus, etc. This year I 
have sown my orchard of twenty-five acres to velvet beans, will plow in the 
fall and sow to rye or vetch and turn under in the spring. 
6. Not much used, although there is no question of the great advantage 
of the use of phosphoric acid and potash to feed o,ur legumes and they in 
turn will furnish the nitrogen and surely build up the soil so it can raise 
anything with proper rotation. 
8. Peaches. — Curculio and borer. Plums— curculio and brown rot, and 
the West India peach scale on plum trees. Kerosene emulsion, whale oil 
soap and other insecticides, and Bordeaux mixture as a fungicide. I do 
not think they are spreading. 
9. Irrigation.— Not practiced. 
10. 1,500 to 2,000 acres. Five to eighty acres are the average sizes, with 
200 to 300 trees per acre. About fifty cents per crate (3 pecks, 6 baskets), 
covers cost of growing. Washington county about 50,000 crates, Baldwin 
25,000 crates. About $150,000 worth of peaches are generally marketed. 
