O STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



bank stock, and is a little safer than mining stock. An orchard 

 of 1 200 trees in a Maine town is in the market for $3000, less 

 than $3 per tree, and yet the orchard bore 310 barrels of 

 marketable fruit. There are still other opportunities of this 

 sort and it seems to the secretary that they offer the most 

 favorable conditions for commercial fruit growing in Maine. 



THE FRUIT CROP. 



Many inquiries have come to the secretary during the year, 

 asking for information about the apple crop. Some have asked 

 how it compared with an average crop, but I do not know what 

 an average crop of apples really is, and I don't believe any one 

 else does. Thousands of young trees have been coming into 

 bearing in the State every year, so that there are thousands of 

 barrels of fruit on these trees that never bore before ; and it is 

 going to be so for years to come. In the estimates I have 

 made I have compared the crop with that of 1904. The figure* 

 have been from one-third to one-half of that crop. Now that 

 the fruit is harvested, it shows quite the one-half. 



The estimated crop last year was a little over a million barrels, 

 and a probable sale of over 500,000 barrels. From this the 

 crop for 1905 would be a little over 500,000 barrels. The low 

 price last year led many to feed out their apples to the stock, 

 but this year, the prices being more, indications point to the 

 sale of the entire marketable crop. There was a good demand 

 for the early fruit with satisfactory prices. 



the; markets. 

 While there has been a good demand for early fruit in 

 Boston and nearby cities, a large part of the later fruit is 

 going forward to Liverpool. Still there is more or less fruit 

 being sent to Western cities. It was urged by President Gil- 

 bert not long since, that we should make more account of our 

 local markets. And this subject certainly deserves attention. 

 Within the past three months I have had inquiries from respon- 

 sible dealers in Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis and 

 Minneapolis, from which it would seem that they want to handle 

 our fruit. There is one thing we may be sure of, they are 

 much nearer than Liverpool and we can better understand their 

 methods of selling the fruit in the home markets. 



