180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



1 have wondered if there was any new or novel method by whic-h the 

 importance of the subject of apple growing could be presented to the 

 farming and landholding class of our State. Perhaps there is no better 

 way than has been suggested, viz.: Let each enthusiastic horticulturist 

 present an object lesson to those about him and hope for good and lasting 

 results. 



President Stevens: We will now hear a paper on the same subject by 

 F. M. Buker. 



POSSIBILITIES OF COMMERCIAL APPLE GROWING 



IN INDIANA. 



BY F. M. BUKER, ROJUE CITY. 



Endeavoring to comply with the request for a paper on the possibili- 

 ties of Indiana for growing apples on a commercial scale, will state that 

 I am unacquainted with the southern and central belts of the State, never 

 having visited either, and from personal observation knoAv nothing of the 

 capabilities of those sections for apple growing. I have grown applet to 

 a limited extent in the northern Ijelt of the State, and have observed the 

 system of apple gi'owers in the past and which is still much practiced, 

 namely, to plant the tree and let nature do the rest. That method thirty 

 or forty years ago gave the early planters an abundance of excellent fruit, 

 but owing to a change in conditions, obvious to all apple growers, the 

 method is not now producing the results it formerly did, and the scarcity 

 of good apples and the exorl)itant price they command ougin to suggest 

 the necessity of a better method of production. 



The commercial grower has found that better method, and will gro\v 

 the commercial apples of northern Indiana, unless the private gTOwers 

 adopt the methods which give success to the commercial grower. The 

 northern belt of the State, situated on the great glacial drift which covers 

 bedrock to a depth of several hundred feet, with an average elevation 

 of nearly 900 feet above the gulf climate, modified by proximity to the 

 great lakes, and not subject to destructive spring frost, presents an in- 

 viting field for the Ial)ors of the commercial grower of apples. 



President Stevens: Mr. Wallman, ot Nashville, a successful apple 

 grower, will read the next paper. 



