A Visit to the Hyde Park Nursery One of the most attractive features of Austin which always interests the visitor is the Nursery of Mr. F. T. Ramsey located in the beautiful annex to Austin -- Hyde Park. It was our pleasure to visit Mr. Ramsey
last week, and we were more convinced than ever that the fertility of
the soil and the climatic conditions of Texas are as favorable to
horticulture as in other states, when pursued in an intelligent manner. The nursery is reached by the car line and is about two miles north from the city proper. Mr. Ramsey's beautiful
two-story residence is surrounded by rows of stately elm, poplar and
cottonwood trees, and in the yard the walks are bounded by California
box shrubbery, which taken together forms an ideal dwelling place. We found Mr. Ramsey
and family enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner. As we had already
dined we declined their curteous invitation to eat with them.
After dinner Mr. Ramsey
conducted us through a part of his orchards. The first place
shown was the packing house, where from twenty to thirty men were
busily engaged packing and loading trees to be shipped. It was a
mystery to us to understand how the men could know where to find the
different varieties of trees out of the hundreds of rows of all colors
and sizes. Mr. R. enlightened us on this by showing us a printed
diagram which represented his entire orchard. We found that the
rows were numbered as the streets in a city, and by this means a great
deal of labor and trouble was avoided, the proprietor being able to
tell in exactly what part of his twenty or thirty-acre orchard any kind
of tree was to be found. There are between forty and fifty men
employed in planting, packing and shipping. As
we walked through the field, we were shown numerous varieties of rose
and berry bushes and the different kinds of shade trees: umbrella
china, elm, cottonwood, hackberry, etc. To our question as to the
best tree suited for shade, Mr. Ramsey said
in his opinion the elm was the best that nursery-men were discarding
the china trees because they crack open and are not as hearty as the
elm. He has lately filled a large order for three trees for the
capitol yard. Those which interested us most were the pear, peach
and plum trees. Mr. R. stated that he had received a great deal
of praise from his plum trees, of which he has a hundred
varieties. We saw acres and acres of those three kinds of trees
bedded loosely in the ground where they had been transplanted from his
100 acre orchard as they thrived better when transplanted in separate
ground. The roots of these trees are uninjured as they are dug by
a machine requiring six horses to operate it. In
his orchard of bearing trees, the land is as level as a floor, and the
soil well pulverized so as to make walking unpleasant. Mr. R.
when questioned as to the advisability of deep plowing in orchards,
said it was an erroneous opinion; that the land should only be plowed
deep when the trees were planted, and thereafter kept clear of weeds
and in good condition by light breaking of the land, i.e. for three or
four inches. By this means, a covering would be formed over the
ground, which would act as a non-conductor--keeping out the heat and
holding the moisture in the ground. As stated above, Mr. Ramsey is
very successful in plum raising, yet not alone in this as is shown
below in a report from the Statesman of the proceedings of the State
Horticultural Society held at the A. & M. College in July '98: "Travis County as usual came out "on top." Our Frank Ramsey
had a magnificent display or orchard products embracing peaches, plums,
apples and many other fruits grown in these latitudes. His
collection of plums was large and their quality of the highest.
He is freely allowed to be the champion plum grower, not only of Texas,
but of the south; and what he doesn't know about that fruit is not
worth seeking in an encyclopedia. The
judges awarded him three prizes but of six offered for special
exhibits. He gets a gold medal from the Texas State Fair and
Dallas Exposition for the largest and best collective exhibit of fruits
grown in any county in Texas in 1898. Texas
Farm and Ranch offered a gold medal for the largest and best collective
exhibit of fruit grown by any one person or firm in Texas in
1898. Mr. Ramsey will carry that home with him. Mr.
John S. Kerr, of Sherman, offered a gold medal medal for the best plate
of peaches of any variety grown in 1898. This trinket goes with
its predecessors, and one begins to wonder what Mr. Ramsey
is going to do with so much jewelry. If he uses them as they are
intended to be used, on the lapel of his coat, at the next congress,
strangers may mistake him for some eastern potentate instead of the
king of Texas horticulture." On account of the want of space, we can only add that Mr. Ramsey has
been elected President of the Texas Fruit Growers Association; that he
has lately shipped two large orders of trees, one to Louisiana and one
to New Mexico, that shows Mr. Ramsey is meeting the success that comes from intelligence and perseverence. P. H. S.
Autobiography of A. M. Ramsey |
