NEW HAMPSHIRE 



NEW JERSEY 



1081 



"About this time — 1800 to 1810— the apple orchards in 

 town which had been early set out, produced apples in 

 abundance, which were made into cider. Every man 

 had his orchard, and every tenth man his cider-mill. 

 Every well-to-do farmer put into his cellar yearly from 

 20 to 50 barrels of eider which was all drunk on the 

 premises. Col. John Bellows had an orchard of 30 

 acres, the largest in town. In 1805 there were 4,800 bar- 

 rels of cider made and every drop drunk in town." 



At the present time a good many old and somewhat 

 neglected apple orchards are to be found, and these 

 often bear good crops of marketable fruit. At the 

 annual meeting of the New Hampshire Horticultural 

 Society in January, 1899, it was estimated that $2,000,000 

 worth of apples were exported from the state in 1898. 

 Of these about one-half were raised in the two south- 

 eastern counties — Strafford and Rockingham. 



The varieties most commonly grown for export are 

 Baldwin. Rhode Island Greening, Northern Spy, 

 Fameuse, Blue Pearmain, Yellow Bellflower, and King. 

 The newer varieties are of course being introduced, but 

 very few large orchards are being set. Summer and 

 fall apples are abundant for local consumption. 



Very little has been done in a commercial way with 

 the drupaceous fruits. Plums are successfully raised 

 on a small scale. The Lombard is undoubtedly the 

 favorite variety, although the Japanese plums appear 

 to be able to withstand the climate, and are rapidly 

 growing in favor. 



Peaches are raised in a few somewhat isolated in- 

 stances, and it is worthy of note that the peach-growers 

 of five years ago are still in the business. The intro- 

 duction of this fruit as a money crop is of such recent 

 date that records are hard to obtain, but it is estiniatiMi 

 that three crops in five or possibly six years is about 

 the average production. Perhaps hardier varieties will 

 be developed as time goes on. The Barnes peach, a 

 New Hampshire seedling, is a step in this direction. 

 Its originator describes it as being "of good size and 

 color, a freestone, with very yellow and solid flesh of 

 fine flavor." "It ripens in the southern part of the 

 state about Sept. 10, and is the hardiest in wood and 

 bud of anything yet fruited here." 



Market gardening and the raising of small fruits 

 receive some attention, especially in the Merrimac 

 river valley. 



Greenhouse gardening is carried on to a limited ex- 

 tent near the larger towns and cities. Flowers receive 

 their full share of attention, but a good many winter 

 vegetables are still imported from the neighboring 

 state of Massachusetts. 



The New Hampshire Horticultural Society was 

 organized in December, 1893, and after a year of pros- 

 perity was granted an appropriation of three hundred 

 dollars a year by the legislature. This sum enabled 

 the society to hold an annual exhibit in each of the 

 two following years, and also several institutes in dif- 

 ferent parts of the state. The legislature which met in 

 January, 1897, however, failed to make the appropria- 

 tion, and the society was compelled to rely upon its 

 officers and members to carry on the work. The annual 

 exhibits were then held in connection with the State 

 Grange Fair, 



A department of horticulture was established at the 

 New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Me- 

 chanic Arts, at Durham, in 1895 and has grown in both 

 usefulness and influence. 



With the two last-named powers for good, working 

 for the advancement of horticulture in the state, and 

 the fact that emigration from the farms to the cities 

 Is rapidly decreasing, if not already reversed, it is to 

 be hoped and expected that within the next decade 

 New Hampshire will rank as a horticultural state, 

 judged not so much by the gross amount of the output, 

 as by the quality of her products, and the intelligence 

 of the producers. j. a. F'oord. 



NEW JERSEY, HORTICULTURE IN. Fig. 1481. The 



stall- nf N.-w J»-rsi-y, situatr.l as it is b<-tween the large 

 markets of PhilK<k-lpliia on tin- uiit- side and Newark, 

 Jersey City and Ureater New York on the other, is almost 

 necessarily amarket-garden and fruit-errowing state. The 

 soils found in the different section'^ also contribute to this 



end. In the northern part, disintegrating sandstone and 

 slaty formations abound — a soil in which the peach does 

 its best. The sandy soils of South Jersey make that part 

 of the state noted for its truck, berries, etc. Between 

 these two classes of soils are found others of all grades, 

 in one or another of which nearly every kind of fruit and 

 vegetable finds a congenial habitat. 



It is estimated that there are in New Jersey approxi- 

 mately 34,000 farmers. A little more than one-tenth of 

 these are engaged in commercial poiuology- commer- 

 cial in that they are growing fruit for market, depending 

 on their fruit-product for the money-crop of the farm. 

 Those who have planted larger or smaller areas primarily 

 for home use, yet in good years have a surplus to dispose 

 of, are not included in our data. The total area repre- 

 sented is something over 41,000 acres, including all 

 counties of the state except Ocean, from which no com- 

 mercial orchards are reported, and gives an individual 

 average of 12H acres. This average acreage may be all 

 of one kind of fruit, or it may be two acres each of a 

 half-dozen kinds, as the case may be. Individual acre- 

 ages range from one acre in the case of berries to 100 

 and 150 acres for peaches. 



The fruit of fruits for the state is the peach. The area 

 devoted to its culture exceeds that of all the other tree 

 and small fruits combined by nearly 100 acres. In the 

 distribution of this area, a little over 83 per cent is 

 found in the five northern or northwestern counties, 

 i.e., Hunterdon, Sussex, Warren, Morris and Somerset, 



1481. Horticultural regions 



Jersey. 



named in order of importance, though with its present 

 rate of increase Sussex will soon be first in area. 



The second fniit in importance is the apple, although 

 the area devoted to its culture is a little less than one- 

 third that devoted to peaches. The other fruits, in order 

 of importance in total areas, are strawberries, pears, 



