FRUIT AT THE SOUTH. 
363 
tions in Louisiana, we saw a heavy French plow, 
with three to four yoke of cattle attached to it, 
which turned the sod covered with rank thick 
weeds and grass, flat over, in a very perfect man¬ 
ner. The prairie or northern sod plow, we are 
persuaded would do the work as well, and much 
easier than the ungainly French plow. But with 
all these our correspondent is quite as familiar as 
ourselves, and much more capable of deciding as 
to their merits. 
FRUIT AT THE SOUTH. 
I presume the idea must have originated here, 
that our country was unsuited to fruits; but that 
idea does even now exist to a greater or less ex¬ 
tent, and consequently those who do attempt it 
make failure almost sure, and thus prove the hy¬ 
pothesis—at least to their satisfaction. But thanks 
to the inquiring age, the indomitable energy of 
some, and the light of agricultural periodicals, this 
matter is undergoing a vast change; and 1 hope, 
ere many years pass, that our whole country will 
be convinced that we have a fruit country, and 
that all of my countrymen will avail themselves 
of this great blessing. I look on fruits as pecu¬ 
liarly suited to our wants, and thinking as I do, I 
should be forced into the inference that our Creator 
had fallen short in his perfect work, if our climate 
was unsuited to the easy production of fruit. 
In warm climates, fruit is conducive to health 
(ripe fruit, of course), and if we could have it of 
a good quality, and in abundance, I think the 
scourge of our land, fever , would be more under 
our control. In the first place, we all know that 
the bile formed in our system is secreted in greater 
abundance in summer than winter, and I think if 
we would use less food that has carbon as its prin¬ 
cipal constituent, that we should be exempt from 
at least much of this increased flow of bile. Fruit 
is an article of this description; and requiring less 
carbon to keep our system in operation in the sum¬ 
mer, with a great desire for this article, fruit, I 
think that we could with marked benefit use it 
freely, and to a greater extent than our northern 
brethren. I do not desire to enter into the subject 
more fully ; it has been trenched on by many, and 
only add, that it seems to me, the oxygen in the 
fruit will combine with carbon in the system, and 
pass off harmless. You will therefore conclude I 
regard fruit as conducive to health, which I do. 
I put it, on another footing, as our pecuniary 
interest. All manner of stock will feed on fruit, 
and most of them will improve in condition ; be¬ 
sides, it will act on them as on man as to health— 
prevent disease. What number of hogs an or¬ 
chard of 20 acres of good peaches and plums 
would keep in excellent condition from 1st of May 
to 1st of September or October, I can not form an 
idea; but I know this much, that hogs in an 
orchard of the Chickasaw plum (common plum of 
all this region) will not come to call, and presume 
that they would readily come for corn if this fruit 
was not to their taste. I think that, acre for acre, 
the same land will feed as well as if in corn; for 
if the orchard be cultivated as I deem it should be, 
plowed once every spring, and left until the fruit 
ripens, it will produce quite a pasture of crab 
grass, which of itself will fatten stock. And yet 
another advantage, which is now no longer hypo¬ 
thetical ; fruit is profitable to ship to New Orleans, 
and those who live within even 20 to 30 miles of 
the Mississippi river can make it profitable, though 
of course not so much so as if living nearer. I do 
not see any reason why we might not sell in New 
Orleans alone 200 to 500 barrels per day of choice 
peaches, beside a large quantity to the planters on 
the Mississippi, where steepage water prevents 
their growing peach and other standard trees, to 
say nothing of Upper Mississippi and its tributa¬ 
ries. Understand, we can ship excellent fruit by 
the middle of June, and some of the early varieties 
two weeks earlier—this is of peaches; our straw¬ 
berries can be sent up and down early enough to 
pay us well, beside which, the travelling custom 
on the Mississippi river is immense. , We have 
therefore three good reasons, if I am correct in the 
first; beside which I state the gratification of our 
own taste and that of our visiters, as well as the 
moral bearing. Who would think of offering his 
friend a glass, when he could place before him, 
from the 15th of May to the 1st of October, the 
strawberry, melon, and peach, in season, and 
apples anti pears, &c., alkwinter ? 
That peaches will grow here to perfection, equal 
to any point in these United States, who will 
affirm to the contrary ? If any be found so hardy, 
and will come here., I pledge my head to prove to 
him he errs, and will go no farther than Hatch’s 
or Lambert’s, or my friend Hebron, in Warren 
county. I have bought peaches in the Philadel¬ 
phia market at 12£ cents each, and excellent they 
were. I was in that most delightful city for two 
years, and saw choice fruits of all kinds, and I do 
aver, I never saw there a finer peach than I can 
show on this place in August. There has been 
shipped in one day, at Vicksburg, for New Orleans, 
on one boat, 200 barrels of peaches; this proves 
something. . 
Many persons rely on seedlings, and will not be 
convinced by the sad experience of some of us. 
Mr. Hebron has planted out not less than 1,000 
seedlings, and I presume in the last twelve years 
I have done the same. What are they worth, 
with all our trouble ? Both of us have budded to 
the sprouts, or tender limbs of over 90 per cent, 
of our seedlings, I guess, intending to cut down 
the trees of three to five years old,* this shows 
our estimate. , „ 
Too many plant fruit trees on worthless land, fit 
for nothing else. This might do if they would 
remove four to six feet square of the clay, full 
three feet deep, and fill up the hole with earth 
from virgin soil or the woodpile, and then run a 
subsoil plow eighteen inches deep. I have never 
elsewhere seen nectarines succeed as well as in 
this country; I think they do equally as well as 
the peach. The raspberry of several kinds is very 
excellent. Summer and fall apples and pears do full 
as well, so far as our limited experience proves any¬ 
thing. The only difficulty is, your winter fruits 
transplanted here, ripen too soon for us ; but I 
think time and experience will remedy this in our 
rearing winter fruits to suit our latitude. The 
