564 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



FRUIT CULTURE IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



BY J. H. Ledy, Marion, Pa. 



I feel certain that this subject is of vastly more importance than 

 very many of this audience will give credit to. And yet the fruit 

 industry in Pennsylvania is practically undeveloped, and is yet 

 really in its infancy. It has been demonstrated and I feel sure 

 It will not be questioned here, that Pennsylvania has the best 

 adapted soil for the growth of strawberries, raspberries, blackber- 

 ries, currants and gooseberries, figuring along the line of small fruits, 

 in the United States. Some one will say, perhaps, that I am selfish 

 in thinking only of home; but I am certain that the soil of our own 

 Pennsylvania will go side by side with that of any other state in 

 our Union. And there are few localities within the boundaries of 

 our great State in which these fruits cannot be properly produced. 



The culture of small fruits has, in my opinion, been a sadly neg- 

 lected industry by the farmers of Pennsylvania. And many thou- 

 sands of dollars and untold pleasures might have been theirs with 

 the credit side of the ledger telling quite a different story, and one 

 much more pleasant to look upon had small fruit culture received its 

 proper share of attention by the farmers of our State. However, 

 small fruit being only secondary to that of the greater industry of 

 tree fruit culture, and this being one in which I feel more particu- 

 larly at home, I shall hasten on and discuss in my feeble way this 

 still more neglected industry. It is my firm belief that Pennsylva- 

 nia soil is capable of producing apples second to none other, while 

 the quality of our pears, plums and peaches certainly cannot be 

 questioned anywhere. Until ten or twelve years ago we could 

 safely say to the farmers of the State, plant trees, prune and culti- 

 vate them carefully and success awaits you. The situation at this 

 time seems to be, and indeed is different. In about the year 1890 the 

 dreaded San Josd Scale was imported on nursery stock into the 

 San Jos^ Valley, California, and not many years later made its 

 appearance in the orchards of Pennsylvania, and is now spread 

 broadcast throughout almost all of the entire State, becoming ;> 

 serious menace to the culture of fruit trees everywhere within it? 

 borders. We can no longer say then to the average farmer, platit 



