No. 7. DEPAIITMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 495 



you with us, we hope you will feel perfectly at home, and taken part 

 in all the discussions. We want vou to have a aood time and to 

 carry aw^ay with you only pleasant recollections. 



COMMERCIAL FRUIT GROWING. 



PROF. G, F. WARREN, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — This subject is one 

 that I prefer to present with lantern slides. Since we do 

 not have a lantern here, I wull call attention to a few points on this 

 subject and then take up a discussion of tillage of apple orchards. 



I*ennsylvania"s Rank in Horticulture. — Commercial fruit growing 

 is a good subject for an address in Pennsylvania because this State 

 has alw^ays been the second or third in the Union in fruit produc- 

 tion. I wonder if you realize how important a place it occupies. It 

 is well for us to stop and take an inventory of ourselves occasion- 

 ally. We have no later figures on fruit crops than the last census 

 and there has been a great increase since then. At the time of the 

 last census Pennsylvania ranked among the states: second in apples, 

 third in all orchard fruit, fourth in grapes, sixth in nursery products 

 and seventh in small fruits. The total fruit products for the census 

 year 1899 were |1U,500,000.00. It stood second in total vegetable 

 products with a value of |16,000,000.00. 



The total horticultural products, not including flowers and seeds 

 and greenhouse products of this State were, therefore, |26, 000,000. 00. 

 The present product is certainly much above these figures. Penn- 

 sylvania is, therefore, third in horticulture being exceeded by Cali- 

 fornia and New York. Nearh' one-iourth of all the crops of Penn- 

 sylvania are horticultural crops (22 per cent.). 



In spite of scale, codling moth, scab and all the other enemies that 

 must be controlled, I feel sure that this position will be maintained 

 for manv vears. No state excei»t New Jersey has a better situation 

 with reference to markets. This position together with favorable 

 soil and climate, certainly calls for an increase in fruit growing, so 

 that just now when so many men are discouraged on account of scaJ^ 

 and other difficulties seems to me to be the best time for entering the 

 fruit business provided it is undertaken in a business like way. 



Danger of Over Production. — But can we compete with the West? 

 And is there no danger of over production? In 1850 the average 

 value of fruit produced in the United States was 33 cents for every 

 person. People who bought the fruit paid more, but the average 

 value at the farm was 33 cents for every person in the United States. 

 In 1900 the amount was |1.11 for orchard fruit and $1.74 per capita 

 for all fruit, or four to five times as much is being spent by each 

 member of our population as was spent 50 years ago. On the aver- 

 age, the amount spent per capita has increased about 30 per cent, 

 every ten years. Can we say that this increase is now going to stop? 

 Can we say that the American's desire for fruit has reached its 



