l68 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE, 



around last month it was quite generally observed in most of 

 the large eastern cities. Commission houses, restaurants and 

 retail stores made a special effort to center attention on this par- 

 ticular fruit. Many schools in apple growing regions devoted 

 a portion of the day to specially written articles on the apple 

 and in the cities many samples were given to the poor, to orphan 

 asylums and to hospitals. The Chicago papers participated in 

 the celebration, telling the people about the abundance of the 

 fruit and its beneficial eft'ect. In Baltimore about 35,000 apples 

 were distributed among the children in the orphan asylums. In 

 New York, restaurants in the produce district made a special 

 display of apples cooked in various styles. 



Referring again to the heavy planting of apples made within 

 the past few years, it should be stated that this great increase is 

 offset to a considerable extent by the decline of hundreds of 

 small orchards scattered over the country. Only a few years 

 ago from many small railroad stations in the older apple pro- 

 ducing states such as Maryland, Ohio and Michigan, from one 

 to five or more carloads of apples were shipped each fall to the 

 city markets. Now the small farm orchards are gone and no 

 fruit is shipped. This decline has been due to neglect, ravages 

 of the San Jose scale, etc. In the ten years intervening from 

 1900 to 1910 the United States census showed a decline in bear- 

 ing apple trees in the United States of from 201,794,000 to 

 151,323.000 or 33.4 per cent. It will take a considerable share 

 of the newly set trees to offset this decline. The apple business 

 is falling more and more into the hands of the specialist and the 

 man who makes apple growing the dominant feature of his 

 farm operations rather than a side issue. 



It rarely happens that we get anything like a full crop of 

 apples in all sections of the country in any one year. This fact 

 also tends to relieve, to a considerable extent, the tenseness of 

 the situation so far as over prdouction is concerned. In 1896 we 

 had the largest apple crop this country has ever produced. In 

 1910 the next largest yield occurred. Here was an interval of 

 14 years between the two big crops. The well established 

 grower can withstand an occasional year of big crops and low 

 prices. 



High transportation rates and expensive methods of distribut- 

 ing in the large cities militate against the apple business. The 



