The Trustees' Garden

At this site was located the first public agricultural experimental garden in America. From this garden was disseminated the upland cotton which later comprised the greater part of the world's cotton commerce. Here were propagated and from this garden distributed, the peach trees which gave Georgia and South Carolina another major commercial crop. The garden consisted of ten acres. It was established by Oglethorpe within one month after the settlement of Georgia. Botanists were sent by the Trustees of the Colony from England to the West Indies and South America to procure plants for the garden. Vine cuttings, flax, hemp, potashes, indigo, cochineal, olives, and medicinal herbs were grown. The greatest hope was centered in the mulberry trees, essential to silk culture. In the early days of the Colony, Queen Caroline was clothed in Georgia silk, and the town's largest structure was the filature. The silk and wine industries failed to materialize. The distant sponsors were unable to judge of the immense importance of the experiments conducted in other products. In 1755 the site was developed as a residential section.