564 ANNUAL REPORT OF THfii Off. DOC. 



To read the flashy articles that ai)pear from time to time in some 

 of our leading magazines, one might easily be led to believe that- 

 this is one of the linest '*get rich quick" schemes imaginable. That 

 any man — e\en though he had been a failure at everything else, 

 could go out into the country any where and plant an orchard and 

 the trees would do the rest. 



Those of us who have been in the business longest know that it 

 is not a get lich quick scheme by any means. But we do know that 

 an orchard of the right kind of trees, planted in the right place, by 

 the right man, is a thoroughly good, safe business proposition, but 

 it is a business that requires untiring energy, intelligence, pluck and 

 dogged perseverance. • 



The wonderful development during the jmst 25 years of railroad, 

 steamship, telegraph and telephone lines has brought the ends of 

 the earth very close together. The man in Pennsylvania who grows 

 fruit for the general market today is the active competitor of every 

 man in the world who grows the same kind of fruit, and must 

 measure wits with some of the shrewdest, sharpest business men 

 to be found anywhere. The orchard that is planted in Pennsyl- 

 vania today will have as its competitor the best located, best cared 

 for orchards in the world. 



Bearing these two facts in mind it behooves us to exercise the 

 greatest care in starting every new plantation. We want to be as 

 sure as we can that we are planting the right tree in the right 

 place. 



We are told by very good judges of fruit, men who have trav- 

 eled over every state in the Union, that we can grow fruit of as 

 high quality in Pennsylvania as can be grown anywhere. We be- 

 lieve this to be true. We know, however, by experience, that while 

 all kinds of peaches, all kinds of pears, all kinds of apples will grow 

 on any well-drained farm in this valley, only a very few varieties 

 will reach their highest degree of perfection on any one farm, often 

 different fields on the same farm produce widely different results. 

 This fact was brought very forcibly to my mind whan an orchard 

 that I planted about 40 years ago came into bearing and I found 

 one-third of the trees unprofitable, although I had seen the same 

 varieties bearing profitable crops in Franklin county. 



I proposed to cur State Horticultural Association that we try 

 to secure an investigation either by the National Government, or the 

 State Government of the effect of soil and sub-soil upon the various 

 varieties of fruit. After agitating the question for about 15 years, 

 Dr. Hunt, Director of our State Experiment Station, secured for us 

 the services of Mr. H. J. Wilder, of the Bureau of Soils, at Wa.sh- 

 ington, for one year, to make this investigation. One year was en- 

 tirely too short a time, but fortunately for us, Mr. Wilder had been 

 studying this question for 7 or 8 years before he came to us. He 

 had been observing the growth and production of the leading varie- 

 tres on different soils on what is known as the Appalachian Chain 

 of w^hich these mountains are a part, extending from Massachusetts 

 to North Carolina. He found that over this entire district a certain 

 kind of soil and sub-soil always exercised the same infiuen'-e over 

 a given variety. I understand the result of his work in Pennsyl- 

 vania is ready for the printer, so we ought to be able to get it be- 



