SPRING LAKE--1874. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE FRUIT REPORT FOR SPRING LAKE. READ BY 



CHARLES E. SOULE, ESQ., AT THE OCTOBER MEETING OF THE 



STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Mk. President and Gentlemen: — The year 1874 has been by far the 

 most cheering and snccessful year the fruit growers of Spring Lake and vicin- 

 ity have known since attention has been largely drawn toward this branch of 

 husbandry. 



peaches, 



which constitute our principal crop here, yielded largely, have been the finest 

 in quality, and have sold at the most remunerative prices that growers have 

 known since the early days when the lack of supply made the demand such as 

 to obtain fancy prices to the grovrer. 



the drouth. 



It is true indeed, that the drouth, which so completely ruined the berry 

 crop, shortened the yield and injured the quality of the Hale's Early and Early 

 York in many cases, but I have in mind a neighbor's crop of Hale's Early 

 which I helped to harvest, that in yield, in size of fruit, and in the beauty of 

 bloom that distinguishes this popular but ephemeral variety, I have not seen 

 equalled since our lake has been the peach man's home. But this peculiar ex- 

 cellence was owing to radical thinning, to good cultivation and judicial en- 

 richment, rather than peculiarity of soil or season. 



opportune rain 

 brought the Barnards and Early Crawfords along in their season, in the great- 

 est quantities and excellence we had ever known. 



the early CRAWFORD. 



The Early Crawford is probably the most ext ensively grown of any single 

 variety in this locality. My estimate is made from some careful computations 

 of crops raised by the large growers, and I judge that upwards of 25,000 baskets 

 of Early Crawford s were shipped from the town of Spring Lake during the 

 month of September. The Hale's Early, the Barnard, the Old Mixon Free, 

 and Hill's Chili, have been since 1869 and 1870 extensively planted, but they 

 do not yet severally reach the yield of Early Crawford's planted in 1866, 1867, 

 and 1868. 



