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.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF DIPLOMA FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA]
My irrigation plant in south Georgia having proved a success, the
Department of Agriculture at Washington sent a special irrigation
engineer to Tompkins plantation to make a report. Such a good
report was made that the Department conferred upon me the title of
Collaborator of Irrigation, giving me a diploma stating this fact.
As I stated near the beginning of this story of my life, I believe
that my mind and temperament are those of a naturalist. From my
boyhood my interest in birds has never abated. I know their habits,
I can distinguish the notes of all the birds of our woods and
recognize them by their flight as far as my eyes can see.
This spring (1916) while seated on the porch of our home, at Mount
Airy, I have succeeded with great patience and with the enticing
power of the peanut, in getting a gray-crested titmouse to light on
my hand, and to take a peanut from between my lips. And I persuaded
a nuthatch to come within a foot of my chair. The titmouse knew me
so well that when I was several hundred yards from the house it flew
down from a tall tree and took a peanut from my hand. This was in
the season when food was plentiful.
As an agriculturist as well as naturalist I have been always
interested in the insectivorous birds as a great aid to man in the
destruction of insects. I know of no bird that does not eat insects,
except the goldfinch. I remember once examining the stomach of an
American swift, it contained a mass of insects, six hundred and
fifty mosquitoes and gnats which had been caught on the wing that
day. Especially valuable is the purple martin because he can be
attracted to our fields and orchards if the proper kind of house is
made for him. He arrives from the tropics very early in time to meet
the first flight of many noxious insects such as the cuculio which
is so destructive to the peach and similar fruits.
When I built for irrigation my reservoir holding four hundred
thousand gallons, I was afraid that it would be a great breeding
place for mosquitoes. I placed around the reservoir boxes and gourds
on poles as homes for the purple martin, so that the birds would
destroy the mosquitoes. At the same time I had put in the water
small fish to eat the wiggletails, the larvæ of the mosquito. The
fish and martins have largely eradicated this noxious insect from
the plantations.[1]
[1] Acknowledgment of Mr. Fort's observations on mosquitoes has
been made in _The Mosquitoes of North and Central America and West
Indies_, pages 178, 403, vol. i. Authors: Leland O. Howard, Harrison
G. Dyar, Frederick Knabe.
At the present time the boll weevil has made its appearance in most
of the cotton fields in southwest and middle Georgia. I believe
that the ravages of the weevil cannot be stopped, but they can be
checked and reduced to a minimum. In studying the history of this
insect, I find that it is food for birds of the class hirundo, or
swallow. When the boll weevil, which is one of cuculio, makes its
first flight over the cotton fields before depositing its eggs in
the cotton squares is the time that it is caught by the swallows
and martins. The weevil is slow in flight and easily caught. If
the first brood is caught it will decrease them by the million,
as it has been calculated that the progeny of one female, if not
destroyed, would by the end of the season be two million. I have had
placed around my cotton fields forty martin boxes. I am confident
that these birds will greatly lessen the depredation of the boll
weevil in my fields. As the martin returns every year to the same
home, each year I hope to have a larger colony.
We must protect the birds. A great French savant has said that in
seven years, without the help of insectivorous birds, the world
would become uninhabitable by man. The destruction of insects is
greatest during the nesting season of the birds, as a young bird is
a small mill continually grinding up insects. Birds should have our
special protection at that season. A young bird just off the nest
is a prey to almost everything; cats, hawks, snakes, are among its
principal enemies. The wanton destruction of bird life by man has so
decreased them that it threatens the world with a great calamity.
We must teach the young generation to refrain from this destructive
work, and that the birds are our useful friends. Teach them to love
the birds, to admire their plumage and song, to study their habits,
and to realize that they contemplate the work of a munificent
Creator who has fashioned these beautiful inhabitants of the air.
I now bring to a close these brief reminiscences of a long life,
dictated to my daughter at her request. They are for my six
children, being a short record of the life and work of their father.
[Illustration: WITH ONE OF HIS BIRD FRIENDS]