This season, 1916, my orchard at Turkey Cove has an abundant crop of splendid apples, and I hope in the next few months to harvest a crop of two thousand bushels. I have just returned from a visit to my orchard, and it presents a beautiful sight. My youngest son, William, has the active management of my orchards.
University of Georgia,
Office of the Chancellor,
Athens, Georgia,
October 22, 1915.Col. John P. Fort, Mount Airy, Georgia.
Dear Doctor Fort:
I received the basket of apples about a week ago and thank you for them. You have no idea how much I appreciate a kindness like this, particularly when it comes from the man who has rendered the greatest service to Georgia of any living man.
Yours sincerely,
David C. Barrow.
There are now thousands of acres planted in this section of the State, and it bids fair to be one of the most profitable of Georgia's industries—an industry attributable in a great way to my success.
I now wish to write a few words on my interest in the culture of pecans. When a boy in Milledgeville, in the year 1849, my aunt, Mrs. Moses Fort, widow of my father's brother, returned from a visit to one of her sons in Louisiana. She brought with her a little sack holding about a quart of pecans. She divided them among my father's children, my share being about twelve. The others ate theirs, but I planted mine in the back of the garden, marking the places with stakes from my bird trap. They came up that spring and some of them are now immense trees, sixty feet tall and bearing bushels of pecans. As far as I know these are the oldest pecan trees in the State of Georgia. About thirty years ago I planted a small pecan orchard on Tompkins plantation. They were not budded and were a poor variety, and for many years they were neglected. But about three years ago I had them budded and I believe that in a few years they will yield a profitable crop. The pecan industry in Georgia bids fair to be a very large one, as hundreds of acres have been planted.
My belief in the agricultural possibilities of Georgia is so great, especially in the growing of fruits, that I wish to mention all my work in this line, the successful experiments and the ones that have not yet, from one cause or another, proved successes, such as my cherries in north Georgia, and my experiment with figs in south Georgia. The latter proved a failure because of the avidity and lack of coöperation of the railroads. Figs are too perishable to stand shipping. I wished to can the figs in glass jars at the orchard, but the freight rates on fruit in glass jars were so high and as there was no local market I abandoned the orchard. It would have proved a difficult undertaking anyway as I could not be in that section at the time and the work would have lacked the master's eye.
There is one more experiment in agriculture that I wish to mention which has been a success. I thought of growing vegetables in north Georgia to ship to Florida after its crop was over. So I planted half an acre in tomatoes to be shipped to Savannah and Jacksonville. The railroads considered shipping vegetables to southern points such an uncertain and foolish thing that they required me to give bond on the freight. My experiment was a great success, the commission merchant, Mr. Putzel, of Savannah, wrote me that in his twenty-seven years of experience he had never handled such stock. The half-acre netted me one hundred and fifty-nine dollars. My example has been followed by others, and vegetables are now being shipped in considerable quantities from Cornelia to south Georgia and Florida markets.
In June, 1909, when in Athens to attend the graduation of two of my sons, as an appreciation of my work for the State agriculture, I had conferred upon me by the University of Georgia, the degree of "Doctor of Science." That the trustees of the University contemplated this was entirely unknown to me. This honor was conferred before a large audience and was very gratifying.
