POMOLOGY 



POMOLOGY 



1399^ 



Fruit-growing is the most important and charac- 

 teristic horticultural interest of North America. In 

 fact, North American pomology may justly be said to 

 be the best and most progressive in the world if excel- 

 lence is measured by commercial standards, quantity of 

 product, and the quickness 

 and precision with which 

 scientific theory and discov- 

 ery are applied to it. Most 

 remarkable examples of the 

 quick assimilation and ap- 

 plication of theoretical 

 teachings are afforded by 

 the readiness with which 

 fruit-growers within the last 

 decade have adopted the 

 ideas associated with tillage, 

 spraying, pollination, ferti- 

 lizing and pruning. Yet, 

 great as have been the ad- 

 vances, progress has only 

 begun: one advance leads 

 to another. Pictures of typi- 

 cal American fruit-planta- 

 tions may be found under 

 Grape, Hortimlture, Olive, 

 Orange, Neiv York, Peach, 

 Plum, etc., and others are 

 shown in Figs. 1890-1895. 



The American ideals in 

 Pomology are quite unlike 

 the European. The Ameri- 

 can aims at uniformity over 

 large areas. The European 



gives more attention to special practices, particularly in 

 training of fruit-trees. This is well illustrated in Amer- 

 ican nurseries as contrasted with European nurseries 

 (see Nurserij). The American merely prunes his fruit 

 trees in the nursery: he does not train them. The 

 American ideal in nursery stock is shown in Fig. 1896. 

 See Pruning. 



In nearly all parts of the country the extension of 

 fruit-growing is the most radical change of base now 

 taking place in farming operations. This growth of 

 the fruit business is possible, because the consumption 

 of fruit is increasing amongst all people, the facilities 

 for transportation have been improved, scientific dis- 

 covery has insured the production of good crops, and 

 because many other kinds of farming have been rela- 

 tively un])rofltable. Unfortunatelj', there are no com- 

 plete statistics yet published of the pomological re- 

 sources of the United States or Canada. 



Whilst the phenomenal development of American 

 pomology has been due in great measure to climatic and 



of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees" in 1817, and followed 

 by Thacher's "American Orchardist" in 1822. These 

 pioneer writings gave much of their space to orchard 

 management, with little mere compilation of descrip- 

 tions of varieties. Subsequent volumes, for nearly 



& y 



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1891. Young plum orchard, showing clean tillage and high- 

 heading. 

 Some growers head-in vigorous young trees like the 

 above, but others prefer to let them take their natural 

 course, keeping the heads open rather than thick and 

 close. Neither method is best under all circumstances. 

 See Pruning. 



economic conditions, it also has been hastened by book 

 writings. No less than fifty authors have contributed 

 books of greater or less size, either on the general sub- 

 ject or on special fruits, beginning with Coxe's"View 



1892. Double planting, showing bush-fruits growing between the trees. 



This is to be discouraged as a general practice, but it may be successful when high culture 

 and extra care are given. 



fifty years, were in large part compilations and coUa 

 tions of accounts of varieties. To this latter class 

 belongthe works of Prince, Kenriek, Downing, Thomas, 

 Warder. It is only in the present time that we have 

 come to treat the subject fundamentally, by giving the 

 weight of discussion to principles of orchard manage- 

 ment. For further discussion of books, see the article 

 Hortictilture. 



The evolution of our pomology is well illustrated in 

 the radical change of ideals within the last quarter 

 century. These new points of view may be arranged 

 conveniently under seven general heads: 



1. The most important point of view connected with 

 our commercial pomology is the fact that there is a 

 horticultural industry as distinguished from a general 

 agricultural industry. At the opening of the nine- 

 teenth century our agriculture was more or less honio 

 geneous, largely because the extent of it was limited 

 and because there was little demand for other than 

 the few staple commodities. The horticulture of that 

 .time was confined chiefly to a small area about the 

 homestead. A few vegetables, flowers and fruits in a. 

 small plantation, with here and there a single green- 

 house, represented the horticultural effort of the time. 

 At the present day we conceive of whole states and 

 of entire geographical areas as horticultural regions. 

 Persons now buy farms with the explicit purpose of de- 

 voting them to the production of fruits or other horti- 

 cultural products. Even fifty years ago horticulture 

 was largely an amateur's avocation, but to-day it is one 

 of the leading commercial occupations of the country, 

 and the most important single factor in it, in America, 

 is pomology. With this rise of the horticultural indus- 

 tries came a demand for new knowledge respecting a 

 host of subjects which were undreamed of even as late 

 as a half century ago. The cotemporary progress in 

 pomology is largely a breaking away from the old 

 ideals. Those persons W'ho are still laggards are the 

 ones who are holding to the point of view of a genera- 

 tion ago. Practices that were good enough for amateur 

 purposes, or for the incidental and accidental fruit- 

 growing of our fathers, may be wholly inadequate to the 

 new-time conditions. At the opening of the century 

 there was practically no commercial orcharding. The 

 apple was grown somewhat extensively in many parts of 

 the country, particularly in New England, but it was 

 used chiefly for the making of cider. Small-fruit grow- 

 ing, as a business, had not developed. In fact, com- 

 mercial strawberry-growing may be said to have begun . 



