No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 343 



ure. Pears, only about 10 per cent, of crop. Peaches, in hands of 

 experienced manager on properly selected soil and location, brought 

 forth full crop while thousands of trees not so situated failed 

 to produce even a partial crop. Strawberries; the same can be 

 said as of peaches, from no crop to full yield. Continued low 

 temperature and excess of rain during early part of summer are 

 chief reasons of strawberry failure. 



Apples. The yield of this fruit was a full crop in many parts 

 of the State and the qualities good. 



It mav be safelv said that Pennsylvania is not realizing the full 

 measures of its opportunities as a fruit-grownig state, with a 

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

 that can be grown in the Temperate Zone. Why should this be so? 



Notwithstanding the glowing reports of the rapidly increasing 

 wealth of the country, the fact remains only too glaring that a 

 majorit}', at least, of our fruit growers are not at this day in 

 enviable circumstances. Is it because we have not had time and 

 opportunity for developments? No. Is it because we have repeat- 

 edly been visited bv unfavorable seasons or discriminating circum- 

 stances? Is it because our people have been unthrifty and slow, 

 unwilling to work, or extravagant in their living? No. Is it because 

 thousands upon thousands of acres of land have been set in fruit 

 trees, that was not adapted to fruit so set and no attention paid 

 to varieties? Friends, I believe we struck the keynote. 



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 falls, and to-day I doubt whether Pennsylvania has 50 per 

 cent, of the peach trees it had ten years ago. Thousands of trees 

 planted never became of bearing age or produced enough fruit to 

 pay the nursery bill. We admit, in these days of narrow margins 

 together with endless pests and diseases, our orchards will succumb 

 quicker or bear less negligence than heretofore. We have also 

 learned that arguments may look reasonable upon paper or sound 

 logical from the platform, but we all know that theory is as worth- 

 less as a rope of sand unless it is backed by experience. At the 

 present day an inexperienced man is as much out of place on a 

 fruit farm as a diamond on the nose of a razor-back hog. 



With the rapid increase of orchard pests and unfavorable fruit 

 seasons, many of our fruit growers abandoned the idea of growing 

 fruit, and are now falling back to former occupations. Therefore 

 is left a class of fruit growers in Pennsylvania to-day that hav*" 

 stood the test. They are a class of people that have borne and can 

 bear reverses physically. Were it not for this class of people, fruit 

 growing in the State would be wiped out of existence. 



This report would be incomplete without reference to a class of 

 fruit growers in this State who laid the foundations of fruit grow- 

 ing, whose followers are dropping out as fast a^s they dropped in. 

 The former need no encouragements. They are born and raised 

 on the farm and their education is backed by experience. Neither 

 will they be discouraged or encouraged by theoretical arguments. 



How many of our so-called scientific men walk along the shore 

 of the great ocean of horticultural truth and only here and there 

 pick up a pebble, while many a man not I^nown as vsucli is actnallj 



