No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 563 



ABSTRACT FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATE 

 HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

 HELD AT PITTSBURG, PA., JANUARY 16-19, 1912. 



OFFICERS FOR 1912 



PRESIDENT 

 Gabriel Hlester, Harrisburg 



VICE PRESIDENTS 



Hon. W. T. Creasy, Catawissa 



F. H. Fassett, Meshoppen 



R. M. Eldon Aspers 



RECORDING SECRETARY 

 Chester J. Tyson, Floradale 



CORRESPONDING SECRETARY 

 Wm. P. Brinton Christiana 



TREASURER 

 Edwin W. Thomas, King of Prussia 



COMMERCIAL ORCHARDING IN PENNSYLVANIA AS A 



BUSINESS PROPOSITION 



By GABRIEL HIESTER, Harrisburg, Pa. 



I have always taken an interest in fruit culture. Since boyhood 

 I have seldom missed an opportunity to attend a meeting on this 

 subject. Up to within a year or two the discussions at these meet- 

 ings have been carried on principally by amateurs — from the view- 

 point of the home garden and home orchard, and were confined en- 

 tirely to a comparison of varieties-^the merits of the latest novelties, 

 methods of culture and pruning. 



We have now reached the commercial stage. Fruit groAving has 

 become a business of vast importance in this country, and in ad- 

 dition to the important subjects just mentioned, there are others of 

 a business nature equally important to occupy our attention. It is 

 my purpose to consider some of these newer questions. 



