Satsuma Production
in Baldwin County
Birds - Eye View
3yr-old Satsuma Orange Orchard
Southern Alabama Plantation Co.
April 24, 1914.
While the first Satsuma orange planting is credited to Samuel White of Massachusetts in late 1890s near Battles Wharf, credit for first commercial planting made in county is given to Dr. W.H. Ludewig who in 1909 planted a 20-acre orchard near Foley.
Oscar Fridoif Eskil Winberg, March 1911.
Oscar Fridoif Eskil Winberg, an early settler of Silverhill area, began studying and experimenting with the satsuma and by 1910, planted his first trees on land he cleared. By 1914, he shipped his first carload of satsuma north.
3yr-old Satsuma Orange Orchard
Southern Alabama Plantation Co.
April 24, 1914.
During the next ten years, satsuma orchards were planted all across the southern part of the county and in 1917, shipments from Gulf Coast orchards was 11 cars by rail. Four years later in 1921, it was 190 cars. A 1922 ad in The Onlooker touting the "virtues" of planting satsuma said;
"if you've got any pep in your carcass, any red-blood in your veins, get in on ground-floor of opportunity, scrap your snowshoes and chamois-lined undershirt, come to Baldwin County, the land of constant sunshine."
But in January 10, 1924, headlines claimed "slight damage to citrus groves" when one of the south's worst cold spells had farmers reporting heavy losses to their crops including satsuma orchards. Temperatures dropped 6 degrees between hours of 2 and 6 o'clock on Sunday going to 14 degrees and standing at 16 degrees on Mon-day.
Birds - Eye View - Orange Orchards
Southern Alabama Plantation Co. - Silverhill, Ala.
about 1915.
Nursery stock suffered the greatest damage and while it was generally agreed by experts the citrus plants could survived such temperatures, the majority of satsuma growers lost confidence in the satsuma culture as commercial crop. By November of 1926, the satsuma crop had dropped to total 22 cars at beginning of the fall season compared to the 190 cars in 1921.
Published 2001 in The Baldwin County Heritage Book.
Written by: the Baldwin County Heritage Book committee
THE SILVERHILL: A PROMISING AND APPARENTLY HARDY STRAIN OF SATSUMA ORANGE
Walter T. Swingle
1931 Vol. 44 pages 201-202
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