No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 425 



Fruit growing has been profitable where near markets, but little 

 has been done toward bringing the people to properly understand the 

 great possibilities within their reach. However, we are prepared 

 to report rapid progress. In proof of this, 1 wish to call attention 

 to the display of fruits at Horticultural meetings, fairs, institutes, 

 orchard meetings and Grange meetings, which speak in terms too 

 plain to be misunderstood of the advancement of fruit growing in 

 Pennsylvania. It has been fairly demonstrated that a great per 

 cent, of our cheap lands are admirably adapted to the growing of 

 fruits if intelligent and up-to-date methods are used. New acres 

 have been uppermost in the minds of the husbandman. They as 

 yet have scarcely begun to utilize them as they may and will in future 

 years. Fruit trees resi)ond beyond the belief of the ordinary person 

 even on what is called worn-out land. The roots penetrate deeper 

 and feed on the fertility stored beyond the reach of the ordinary 

 field crop. Fruit trees put on rapid growth if properly cultivated, 

 fertilized and pruned, and the ever present insect pests held in check 

 by use of improved spray methods, all of which must be followed up 

 intelligently. 



The State is doing a great work in bringing the people to under- 

 stand and practice the new way of growing trees, gathering, pack- 

 ing and marketing fruit. In the model and supervision orchard work 

 now carried on by the State through the Bureau of Zoology, the 

 people are taught to select a proper site; next to prepare the soil 

 for the planting; also how and where to buy stock, how to select 

 varieties best adapted to each locality, how to plant, prune and 

 fertilize; to know dangerous insect pests and how to suppress them. 

 Among the most destructive of these are the San Jose scale, borers, 

 codling moth, curculio, aphides, oyster shell scale^ scurfy scale, Put- 

 nam scale and the caterpillars. Next comes the fungus diseases, 

 blights, mildews, rusts and rots. Pennsylvania lost one million 

 dollars in 1910 from the ravages of codling moth alone. We see 

 apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, 

 strawberry and many other small fruits all in their natural state 

 growing wild. What better proof can we look for as to the adapt- 

 ability of Pennsylvania to fruit and fruit growing? 



What would we think to see a lumbering railroad train with an 

 ancient wood burning engine and a man between each car twisting 

 away at a cast iron break wheel, trying to manage the railroad 

 business of today? This would be just as much in keeping with the 

 times as to see people trying to grow fruit under the system that 

 prevailed fifty years ago. As our young men and women become edu- 

 cated, the farm home is left to the renter, and soon dissolution reigns. 

 The work now in progress by the State of carrying practical informa- 

 tion direct to the rural districts, is working out the problem to satis- 

 faction. That is just what is happening on many farms in Penn- 

 sylvania. 



The bounteous crops of fruit harvested where improved methods 

 have been applied proves beyond a doubt that there still remains in 

 Pennsylvania soil greater wealth than has ever yet been brought out. 

 Thousands of people are encouraged and starting back to occupy the 

 homes once left to the owls. Over 1100 orchards have been treated 

 for insect pests with very marked results ; seventy-five per cent, more 

 fruit trees now growing in Pennsylvania than three years previous. 

 Peach comes in profitable bearing the fourth year, apple four to 



