NORTH AMERICAN STATES 



NORTH AMERICAN STATES 2169 



Pears are more or less grown in all the apple regions 

 of New York. Bartlett and Seckel are the staple sorts, 

 with Bosc, Anjou, and Winter Nelis largely grown. 

 While New York ranks first among the states of the 

 Union in number of trees and value of product, yet 

 pear-growing is a great risk because of the blight which 

 few attempt to control and which annually takes 

 tremendous toll. 



Increased plantings of cherries in recent years give 

 this fruit greater value than the plum, which long held 

 higher commercial rank. Montmorency is the leading 

 sour cherry. Early Richmond and English Morello are 

 standard kinds. These are grown wherever the apple 

 thrives. By far the largest part of the sour cherry crop 

 goes to the canneries. Napoleon, Windsor, Schmidt, 

 Governor Wood, and Black Tartarian are the sweet 

 sorts most commonly grown, the product going almost 

 wholly to fresh-fruit markets. Sweet cherries are 

 planted only in the peach regions. Cherry-growing in 

 New York, as elsewhere, has many ups and downs, 

 sweet cherries being, possibly, more at the mercy of 

 the seasons than other fruits, and both sweets and sours 

 having to weather many depressions in prices. 



The leading variety of plum is Bradshaw, with Reine 

 Claude, Italian Prune, German Prune, Lombard, 

 Shropshire Damson, and Grand Duke following in 

 order of importance. The plum industry is almost 

 wholly confined to the Ontario shore and Central Lakes 

 regions. Abundance and Burbank, Japanese sorts, are 

 widely planted and give general satisfaction. Native 

 plums, even at the best, are so inferior to the domestica 

 sorts that they are seldom planted. The development 

 of rapid transportation and refrigerator service has 

 enabled Pacific coast growers so to compete with New 

 York that plum-growing seems now to be on a decrease 

 in the state, though recent turns in the markets indi- 

 cate increasing demands for New York plums, which are 

 better flavored because there is not the need to pick 

 before fully mature for shipment. 



One-fourth of all the quinces grown in the United 

 States come from New York. Orange is the standard 

 variety. Apricots thrive in the peach lands of the state, 

 but spring frosts take such heavy toll and the curculio 

 is so aggressive that this fruit is seldom profitably 

 grown. 



New York stands first in rank in the value of small- 

 fruit products, but in acreage falls below New Jersey. 

 Small-fruits, excepting cranberries, the culture of which 

 is confined to Long Island, are grown in all parts of the 

 state. Black raspberries are largely grown in the Cen- 

 tral Lakes region for evaporation, the annual output 

 ranging from 1,200 to 1,500 tons. Strawberry-growing 

 assumes large proportions. 



Several factors greatly favor truck- and vegetable- 

 growing in New York; as, proximity to markets, many 

 means of transportation, the cheapness of labor (largely 

 performed by women and children), the demands of 

 the many canneries, and a large acreage of suitable soil. 

 Long Island is the region of highest specialization in 

 vegetable-growing, most of the cultivated land there 

 being devoted to the culture of truck and seed crops; 

 but vegetables are everywhere grown commercially, 

 the industry becoming especially prominent on the 

 many muck formations in various parts of the state. 

 The vast quantity of truck is nearly all used within the 

 state, much of it, however, being taken by the canner- 

 ies, the product of which, of course, finds sale in con- 

 siderable quantities outside of New York. 



For nearly a century, western New York has been 

 the center of the nursery trade in the United States. 

 The trees and plants are grown in the Central Lakes 

 and Ontario shore regions, but are distributed chiefly 

 from Rochester, Geneva, and Dansville. The most 

 significant thing in the recent development of the 

 nursery business is the very great increase in the propor- 

 tion of ornamentals. The nursery business has suffered 



greatly from San Jose scale in the years just passed, but 

 this pest has now been brought under control. 



New York is also the center of the flower and plant 

 trade of the United States. The floricultural and for- 

 cing interests are somewhat localized, though near every 

 city and large town there are floral and forcing estab- 

 lishments. No doubt the greenhouse industry is most 

 highly developed on Long Island, where roses, carna- 

 tions and flowers for the retail trade are grown. Vio- 

 let-growing is a thriving business at Rhinebeck on 

 the Hudson. Vegetable-forcing thrives in and about 

 Rochester. Large quantities of bulbs are grown on 

 Long Island. 



While there are but few commercial plantations of 

 nuts in New York, the many trees about homes make a 

 good showing for nut-growing in the state. In 1910, 

 there were 164,333 bearing trees in New York; 51,239 

 not yet in bearing. Interest in* nut-culture is yearly 

 increasing. 



Many vegetable and flower seeds are grown in New 

 York, the state taking third place in the value of the 

 product in 1909, the total value being $72,991. The 

 principal seed crops grown are bush-bean, brussela 

 sprouts, cabbage, sweet corn, cucumber, kale, onion, 

 pea, turnip, asparagus, and the seeds of a considerable 

 number of flowers, of which New York leads in the pro- 

 duction of aster seeds. 



Ginseng-culture is profitably carried on in several 

 counties in the state. The value of the product in 1909 

 was $27,138, giving New York first place among the 

 states of the Union. 



The history of horticulture, as well as of countries, 

 is that of its great men. So measured, New York has 

 contributed much to American horticulture. The fol- 

 lowing is a partial roll-call of her eminent men in this 

 profession not now living: C. L. Allen, seedsman, 

 florist and author; Patrick Barry, nurseryman, editor, 

 and author; Thomas Bridgeman, gardener, florist, 

 seedsman, and author; E. S. Carman, editor and experi- 

 menter; John Craig, horticulturist and educator; A. J. 

 Downing, landscape gardener and pomologist; Charles 

 Downing, pomologist and author; George Ellwanger, 

 nurseryman; Peter Henderson, florist, seedsman and 

 author; F. M. Hexamer, nurseryman and editor; Jacob 

 Moore, plant-breeder; Samuel B. Parsons, landscape 

 gardener and author; William Prince (I), nurseryman; 

 William Prince (II), nurseryman and author; William 

 Robert Prince, nurseryman and author; A. M. Purdy, 

 horticulturist and author; J. J. Thomas, pomologist and 

 author; Grant Thorburn, seedsman; Luther Tucker, 

 editor; Calvert Vaux, landscape gardener; and James 

 Vick, seedsman and editor. See Volume III for 

 biographies. 



Public-service agencies for horticulture. 



The State College of Agriculture was established in 

 1904 at Ithaca. Before this time, however, agriculture 

 had been taught as a department in Cornell University. 

 There are nineteen members of the horticultural staff. 



Two experiment stations are doing research work in 

 horticulture for the state. In 1879, the Cornell Uni- 

 versity Agricultural Experiment Station was organized 

 at Ithaca. In 1888, this institution, one of the first of 

 its kind in North America, was reorganized as a federal 

 station. The New York Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, located at Geneva, was established in 1882, and 

 is supported by the state. Both stations give special 

 attention to horticultural problems. 



Horticultural education is provided for in a number 

 of high-schools in the state; in secondary schools of 

 agriculture at Alfred, Canton, and Morrisville. 



Extension work in horticulture is also carried on in 

 the state, through schools, farmers' institutes, and 

 the like. 



The various horticultural interests are nearly all 

 organized into trade or educational societies, the time 



