INTRODUCTION 



Fourth in order of value among our state products are our 

 fruits, valued at $24,820,000, according to the last federal cen- 

 sus, 11)10. This places .New York first in the list of states 

 for her horticultural products. Eliminating the citrus fruits 

 of California, she produces more fruit than any two other states 

 combined. The bulk of this fruit comes from a limited area as 

 compared with the whole, yet there is not a county where some 

 fruit is not grown and where the amount could not be materially 

 increased. 



If for no other reason than for the magnitude of the industry, 

 horticulture should have a prominent place in the series of publi- 

 cations which the Department of Agriculture is putting out through 

 the Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. Aside from its magnitude, 

 another reason why horticulture should loom large in the eyes of 

 everyone interested in the land and its products is that it has 

 always stood for the highest type of agriculture. When the 

 sacred writer attempted to portray what would be most tempting 

 to primitive man, he pictured a tree whose fruit " was good for 

 food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired 

 to make one wise." Again, at the close of the sacred volume, 

 when St. John was setting forth his vision of the celestial country 

 along with the streets of gold and gates of pearl, he described 

 " the tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded 

 her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the 

 healing of the nations/' 



More than once since the time of our first parents has the 

 tree loaded with fruit been pleasant to the eye and proved a 

 temptation not to be resisted by men from other walks of life 

 than agriculture, many times with much more pleasing results than 

 are recorded in the first case. Wherever and whenever civiliza- 

 tion has been at its highest, horticulture has occupied a prominent 

 place, illustrating that only when man supplements by his efforts 

 the works of his Creator do the products of the tree and vine 

 most nearly attain perfection, as instanced by the wild fruits as 



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