252 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



RKPORT OF THE COMMITTKE ON FRUIT AND 



FRUIT CULTURE. 



Enos B. Engle, Chairman. 



It may be safely said that Peimsyivania is not realizing the full 

 measure of its opportunity as a fruit-growing state. With a variety 

 of soil and climate adapted to almost every kind of fruit that 

 can be grown in the temperate zone, we find our fruit industries of 

 third-rate importance, and, except in a few localities, where move- 

 ments have recently been made towards commercial planting, no 

 well-directed effort is being made to take advantage of the oppor- 

 tunities at our command. 



True, we have some individual planters, especially of peaches, 

 who, for years, have made a specialty of this fruit, and have real- 

 ized handsome profits, but the so-called "peach belts" have had 

 their rise and fall, and it is a question whether we have to-day as 

 many large peach orchards in the State as w^e had ten years ago. 

 Yellows, that fatal disease of the peach, has done and is still 

 doing its work, and now, in addition, we have San Jos6 Scale and 

 a number of minor pests and diseases which combine to make the 

 business more discouraging than ever. 



Possibly the most important of the neglected fruit industries 

 of Pennsylvania is that of apple culture. It has been shown by 

 experience and observation that we have a variety of soil, climate 

 and altitude in this State that will produce not only the standard 

 and well-known winter apples of New York and the New England 

 States, but, in addition, many well-known local varieties, native 

 to our own State and equal in (luality to the best grown anywhere. 

 In fact, it has been admitted b}^ experts and the best judges of fruit, 

 that Pennsylvania apples grown to perfection are superior in quality 

 and appearance to those grown in the great apple-producing dis- 

 tricts of the United States. 



Notwithstanding the fact that we are not yet awakened to the 

 full inii)ortance of our State as a producer of first-class aj)ples, 

 it has been stated recently in public print that in 1902 we stood 

 third in the aggregate yield of apples for the year, New York and 

 Ohio being first au<d second respectively. 



