HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



Extracts from Lectures 



POMOLOGICAL PROGRESS IN AMERICA 



BY F. M. HEXAMER, OCTOBER I4, I903. 



In no other branch of horticulture has there been as marked and rapid 

 progress during the latter half of the last century as in fruit culturt. 



Not many decades ago apples were chiefly grown for cider; now they are 

 an indispensable article of food. Not more than half a century since, the 

 possibility of exporting American fruits to Europe was not even dreamed of, 

 much less the finding of a market for them. 



The first American fruits experimented with were Newtown Pipins, sent 

 to England in bushel boxes, by Robert Pell, near Newburg on the 

 Hudson ; and they were so well liked that they brought from $8 to $10 per box. 

 From this small beginning has gradually developed the immense export trade 

 of the present day, and which is constantly increasing not only in the English 

 markets, but also in Germany, France and other continental countries. 



No more obvious evidence of the position of American fruits in the markets 

 of the world could be presented than their record at the Paris world's fair in 1900, 

 where the American exhibits of apples and citrus fruits were the largest ones 

 there throughout the exposition. The United States section has had at all times 

 during the display more than double the quantity of these fruits on exhibition 

 than all other nations together, France included. 



That the United States is destined to become, if it is not already, the leading 

 fruit country of the world, can no longer be doubted. 



Fruit growing for market has increased enormously in extent and has greatly 

 advanced in its methods during the last 20 or 30 years. At the present time 

 it employs vast sums of capital, furnishes a livelihood to armies of men and 

 women, and yields on the whole, large profits. The fruit business in general in 

 the United States has increased in much greater proportion than other agricultural 

 industries ; and while the production of fruit in the past 50 years has increased 

 2,000 per cent, the total population in the country during the same period 

 increased only 270 per cent. 



The importance of proper refrigeration during the entire process of market- 

 ing and transportation has only recently been fully realized and brought to 

 practical and successful application. It has been learned that even our best 

 fall and winter fruits need a cool temperature, if we expect them to reach 

 the consumers in first-class condition. Quick transportation, proper handling 

 and ceaseless watchfulness at every step from picking to the hands of the con- 

 sumers are indispensable and are to be secured only by intelligent organization 

 and co-operation. 



Half a century ago the cultivation of small fruits, as a distinct feature in 



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