No. 4.] FRUIT GROWING. 109 



THE PLACE THAT FRUIT GROWING SHOULD HOLD IN 

 NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURE. 



BY S. D. WILLARD, GENEVA, N. Y. 



The agricultural interests have great reason for encourage- 

 ment, in the fact that at no time in the history of the country 

 has the same interest been manifested in efforts to extend 

 useful information pertaining to the requirements essential 

 to success in all lines of farm work as to-day. State and 

 Federal legislation are extending ample aid in maintaining 

 farm institutes, agricultural colleges and experiment stations, 

 which are in turn doing a work the importance of which can 

 hardly be estimated. 



Said one of our good farmers to me a short time since, 

 "If the work of the New York State Experiment Station 

 had been limited to the analysis of fertilizers alone that are 

 being sold by manufacturers in our State, I believe the ben- 

 efits that have accrued to the farmers from this service has 

 resulted in an annual saving to them of a sum sufficient to 

 pay the entire expense of maintaining the station." Be this 

 as it may, the illustration is an apt one, as showing what the 

 State is doing in a single direction for the promotion of 

 agriculture ; and it should be an incentive to all whose in- 

 terests are involved to increased effort and investigation 

 upon all subjects pertaining to crop production. In doing 

 this, it may be wise to bear in mind that a system of evolu- 

 tion is at work, and the conditions of half a century since 

 are in no sense the conditions of to-day. The world is 

 moving at a pace requiring activity of the highest order to 

 keep abreast of the times. The conservatism of a former 

 generation must give place to the spirit of aggression that 

 has marked out national progress in every undertaking, 

 and in this our agriculture should be found in the front 

 ranks. Our State institutions are furnishing the theories 



