STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 29 



are years of general bounty and consequent low prices and nar- 

 row profits. But when such experiences come we should not 

 forget there are also years of generous profits. Fruit produc- 

 tion in common with all other lines of business is subject to 

 fluctuations in both yield and price but on the whole compares 

 favorably with other lines of production. So long as people 

 shall love fruit there need be no fear on the part of intelligent 

 growers but its production will continue profitable. 



The general public are not aware of the real money value of a 

 good orchard in comparison with other investments. Jf they 

 were, these hill lands in our State, so well adapted to the grow- 

 ing of apples, could not be bought at the trifling figure they are 

 now ofifered for. I have sold sixty dollars worth of apples from 

 a single tree in two successive years, forty dollars in one year 

 and twenty the next. An orchard set with trees of my own 

 growing has since changed hands at two hundred and fifty dol- 

 lars an acre. 



One of the greatest orchard centers to be found in the State is 

 in the town of Monmouth. I have watched the development of 

 those orchards with much interest. A tract of "out of the way" 

 land was owned by the late Dr. Marston. The land had hardly 

 a selling value. In order to make it worth something the owner 

 planted it to apple trees, and a fellow townsman of mine had the 

 care of the trees. There were 800 to 1,000 trees in the orchard. 

 Up to the time it reached a good bearing condition the orchard 

 had paid in fruit enough to cancel all expenses laid out on it up 

 to that time. It was then sold for $3,000. The purchaser took 

 apples enough from it the first season to nearly pay for it, and 

 two years later sold it for for $2,300. The first sale was some 

 ten years ago. Since the last sale the orchard has paid for 

 itself several times over. Last year it gave 1,300 barrels, and 

 the present year 1,000 barrels, and no year has the crop been less 

 than 600 barrels. After all this fruiting, the orchard today is 

 estimated to be still worth four to five thousand dollars ; and all 

 this on land that before planted to trees had scarcely a selling 

 value. I mentioned this particular tract to show the increased 

 value of low-priced land from planting to apple trees. 



There are several large orchards in the same town planted on 

 more accessible lands, just well up to bearing, yet in each case 



