IMPRESSIONS OF OUR FRUIT-GROWING 



INDUSTRIES. 



Some years ago, the writer was asked to undertake an investiga- 

 tion, on behalf of the State, of the fruit-growing of New York. 

 An attempt was made to determine the extent and condition of 

 the industry, to discover the leading difficulties, to devise means 

 to combat insects and fungi, and, by means of lectures and pub- 

 lications, to give advice to fruit-growers. As a result of the 

 inquiries, there have appeared, by various persons, 34 bulletins, 

 covering most of the fruits which are commercially grown in the 

 State. In the progress of these investigations, it became apparent* 

 that there are greater problems in our fruit-growing than those of 

 soil and insects and diseases, that fruit-growing is profitable or 

 not, in the long run, in proportion as it meets the general 

 requirements of trade and conforms to the agricultural status of 

 the time. It became apparent, also, that even the immediate 

 problems of fertilizers, tillage, and handling of a plantation cannot 

 be fully understood from mere scientific investigations at a given 

 place. The investigator must correlate and compare the results of 

 actual fruit-growing in man}^ places and under many conditions 

 to be sure that he arrives at broad and sound conclusions, or at 

 principles. With this thought in mind, an effort has been made, in 

 the last five years, to determine the underlying reasons for some 

 of the successes and failures of the fruit-grower, by studying the 

 actual experiences of fruit-raisers ; and some of the summar}- con- 

 clusions of this inquiry are given herewith. Such conclusions are 

 necessarily colored by the personality of an author, and the 

 writer must therefore say that they are meant to be expressions 

 of general truths rather than statements of specific facts, and 

 that he cares less whether thej' are accepted by the reader than 

 that they shall suggest his thinking out his problems for himself. 



