88 VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



COMMERCIAL ORCHARDING IN VERMONT. 



By T. L,. Kinney, at a meeting of the Board of Agriculture in 



Hinesburgh. 



Growing of certain varieties of fruit in Vermont for com- 

 mercial purposes is getting to be of interest to many of the 

 farmers of our state. It is but very recently that we thought 

 we could raise fruit to any advantage except in a few especially 

 adapted locations, but now we find that we have only to ascer- 

 tain the variety adapted to the location and go ahead. Great 

 credit is due to Dr. Hodkish and others who have given much 

 time and patient work to studying up new and profitable varie- 

 ties for the various parts of the state, and to the experiment 

 station and Honorable Board of Agriculture for extending and 

 distributing this knowledge among the farmers in many towns 

 where it was thought that even apples of good quality could 

 not be grown. 



It has been thought that Western competition would put an 

 end to Vermont commercial orcharding, but the apple is very 

 largely placed on the market in its native grown condition, and 

 not like butter and cheese, a manufactured article, audit estab- 

 lishes its standing on the markets by the location and circum- 

 stances under which it is grown. 



For several years Vermont apples have stood on the New 

 York markets at an advanced price above apples from any 

 other section of the country, and this advance price has been 

 constantly growing from year to year, and with a thorough and 

 intelligent study of the best methods of production and the 

 best methods and manner of marketing, we will be able to hold 

 our position and add new markets to those which we now have. 



The quantity of apples now grown in the state is quite im- 

 portant, there being grown in Grand Isle county alone in 1896, 

 40,000 barrels of merchantable apples. This fruit was grown 

 from about 35,000 trees and there is yet to be heard from more 

 than 17,000 trees that are not yet of bearing age. 



The south island of this county in 1896, produced 22,000 

 barrels for which it received $20,000, and in 1898 it produced 

 10,000 barrels for which it received more than $30,000, and now 

 there are many towns in the state that have large commercial 

 apple orchards. 



