526 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. - 



a great variety of fruits and give each a soil to which it is adapted and 

 have all under your personal supervision. This combining a variety of 

 soils, with suitable locations and elevations, makes Northern Indiana an 

 ideal locality for all fruits which can be grown in this latitude. 



Now in regard to the apple. This is the natural home of the apple. 

 Northern Indiana apples combine as many good points as those of any 

 other section of the Union, and can be gi-own successfully over the entire 

 region, except perhaps the prairie lands of the extreme western portion. 

 While this is true, it is also a fact that only a small per cent, of the land 

 suitable for apple growing is being utilized for that purpose, and our 

 cities are compelled to buy hundreds of car loads of apples annually from 

 the fruit growers of other states, while our farmers continue to grow 

 wheat at a loss upon land much better adapted to growing fruit. 



There are, however, a few wide-awake, energetic men who are turning 

 their attention to fruit growing, and their number is increasing each year. 

 Fruit farms of from ten to eighty acres are not unusual, and their success 

 is inducing others to make the venture. I called upon a young man of 

 about twenty-five a short time ago, who has a fine young orchard of fif- 

 teen acres just coming into bearing, every tree of which he assured me he 

 propagated and gi"ew himself— a record which but few men of his age 

 can show, and one of which he may well be proud. 



Pears succeed equally as well as apples in this region, and are equally 

 profitable. I have the care of a pear orchard that was planted forty years 

 ago, which is Still yielding profitable crops of fruit. Another orchard 

 planted eleven years ago is now carrying its seventh crop of fruit, not 

 having missed a crop in seven years. Last year when pears came the 

 nearest being a failure they have for many years, this orchard bore a 

 full crop, some of the trees yielding seven and one-half bushels of first- 

 class fruit, which sold in my local market at one dollar and a quarter 

 per bushel, wholesale. In fact all the tree fruits attain their highest per- 

 fection h&re and, with the possible exception of peaches, can be profitably 

 grown. Do not understand me that peaches cannot be grown here, for 

 we do grow fine ones, but climatic conditions are such as to make them 

 too uncertain to be valuable as a commercial crop. 



The grape is another fruit to which our hills are naturally adapted, 

 and there are thousands of acres of hill-land which could be profitably 

 planted to this delicious and health-giving fruit. It yields abundantly, 

 seven tons per acre having been shown in my home county, St. Joseph, 

 and clusters weighing two pounds each have been produced. 



Berries and all small fruits succeed equally as well as the tree fruitSi 

 and can be grown in great variety and of a quality that is unsurpassed. 



We have in the cities of Northern Indiana excellent markets for fruit; 

 each year more and more people learning the value of a fruit diet, thus 

 increasing the demand which we are not able to supply. The network of 

 railroads which cover this region gives us the best of shipping facilities 

 and access to all the large cities of the country. 



