lOfi WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



price I pass to consider the question proposed by your Com- 

 mittee. 



Orchard Fruits. This term is applied to our tree fruits and 

 consists of the Apple, Pear, Peach, Plum, Cherry and Quince, 

 named in the order of their importance as New England fruits. 

 The apple enters more largely into consumption and is more 

 widely disseminated in commerce than any other of our fruits. 

 From 1870 to 1880 the export of apples to foreign markets 

 very largely increased, reaching in some years in round numbers 

 one million and a half barrels, and some of our prominent 

 horticulturists hailed the increasing output as the solution of 

 the question how an abundant crop could be disposed of at a 

 profit. Since that time a new industry has appeared in the 

 Middle and Western States calling for large quantities of apples, 

 mainly for export trade. It is estimated that within a radius 

 of forty miles around the city of Rochester in New York State 

 in some years more than five millions bushels of apples are con- 

 sumed by evaporation. If these estimates are correct there are 

 more apples consumed within this limited area than all the 

 green fruit exported from this country and the British Provinces 

 combined. 



The apple is continually becoming and must in the future 

 continue to become more exclusively a farm product. The tree 

 requires large space, and the land in our cities and near the 

 centres of the larger towns is being divided into small estates 

 where only the smaller fruits can be profitably grown. 



The most desirable land for an apple orchard is not the most 

 suitable for the ordinary farm crops, especially the cereal and 

 root crops : the rocky hillsides with strong soil, if not too rough 

 for cultivation, are the best locations for an apple orchard. 

 The advantages of a slope over a level plain are that the trees 

 are more open to the sun's rays necessary to give color and 

 flavor to the fruit, and there is less danger from stagnant water 

 in the soil. 



If the land is under cultivation and in condition to produce 

 sixty bushels of corn to the acre it is in good condition to 

 receive the young trees. In selecting young trees secure 



