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Savannah: Agricultural Innovator

1/13/2019

Savannah has always been a city of innovation. Because of our size we often do not think of Savannah as a place for innovations. We look to New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago as the capitals of innovation. Yet Savannah especially in the world of agricultural crops has been a leader. Most have heard of the ten acres experimental gardens trustees Garden started by Oglethorpe. It brought to America specifically South Carolina and Georgia the peach. Although a failed experiment the growth of mulberry trees for silk worms in Savannah led to a Queen, Caroline, wearing a dress made of Savannah silk. But the most prominent and economic changing crop was the cultivation of upland cotton.

Cotton would change the fortunes for good and bad of southerners. As the south became the center of the world cotton empire. But Savannah is not only responsible for the introduction of the cotton plant to America it is also responsible for the ability to harvest it for a more productive use. The cotton gin improved on by Eli Whitney was done here on one of the storied plantations of Savannah: Mulberry Grove. Mulberry Grove was the home of Revolutionary War Hero Nathaniel Greene and his gregarious wife Caty.

You may have heard of the Historic plant collections at the University of Georgia Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gardens began in 1890, when Mrs. H. B. Miller planted three bamboo plants, obtained from Cuba, at a site in southwestern Savannah. Because th bamboo farm grew into a success it became an ideal spot for a plant introduction station. In 1919 Barbour Lathrop a supporter of U.S. plant exploration, purchased the forty-six-acre tract. Lathrop leased the property to the USDA for $1.

Charles Herty one of Savannah’s great men contributed to research and advocacy in the agriculture world. His first contribution was to use southern pines to create newsprint which became the source for the newspaper industry. This would explode the South’s pulp industry. He also worked to create a turpentine industry which helped preserve the trees to also be used to produce timber. The "Herty system" of collecting turpentine required less forestry expertise and labor. It also produced more turpentine without harming the pine tree.

But what you probably do not know about Savannah is its contribution to the soybean being cultivated in the United States. According to a historical marker “Samuel Bowen, a former seaman of the British East India Company, brought the soybean from China to Georgia in 1765. Bowen, with assistance from the Surveyor General of Georgia, Henry Yonge, cultivated the first soybean crop near Skidaway Island. Bowen’s successful soybean harvest led to the production of soy sauce and vermicelli (soybean noodles), both of which were exported to England.” Apparently, the legendary Greenwich plantation was the center of Bowen’s soybean operation. Today Greenwich Cemetery sits where the plantation once sat.

It is hard to think of the south without the thoughts of cotton, peaches, and pine trees. These are staple features of the south even to this day. But with the introduction of bamboo and soybeans Savannah introduces a bit of the exotic or more precisely the Asian. And where would America be without its Chinese restaurants even in the smallest of cities.

Eli Whtney's cotton gin

Greenwich Plantaton

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