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■APPLE BLOSSOMS (A Borrowed Editorial) 



Seeing an apple tree in bloom makes it easier to understand Johnny 

 Appleseed's passion for planting orchards in the wilderness. A well-ordered 

 orchard is a magnificent sight at this time of year, but even more breath 

 taking must have been the beauty of the trees the old wanderer planted all 

 up and down the Ohio Country when most of it was still Indian Land. Primi- 

 tive Christian that he was, old Johnny must have exclaimisd many times at 

 the beauty of God's works and the bounty of His benevolent hand. 



Those who walk the hills today get the same feeling when they come 

 upon an orchard abandoned to meadow grass and gone wild. The old trees, 

 gnarled with struggle and untrimmed for years, lift their blossom-laden 

 branches as offering to the sun, and all around them stand the young wild- 

 lings, sprung from seed and surviving only by their ovm strength and hardi- 

 hood. The air is sweet with their fragrance and loud with their company 

 of bees. Every stage of beauty lines the branches, from the flush of the 

 bud to the ivide-petaled whiteness of full bloom. 



The abandoned apple tree and its seedlings belong with the wild 

 rose and tho blackberry tangle; with the roso in particular, vihich the 

 botanist meticulously points out is its cousin once or twice removed. And 

 it is the particular possession of May, when Spring is no longer in doubt 

 and Summer has not yet really turned on the heat. It belongs v/ith warm 

 rain and the first buttercups and scarlet tanagers telling the morning 

 what a lovely thing it is to be alive. 



Johnny Appleseed knew what he was about, 



PRICE CEILINGS FOR APPLES 



A committee representing the apple growers of the northeastern 

 states, including John Chandler and John Lyman, has prepared the following 

 statement for the OPA after considering all angles of the apple industry: 



The Northeast has become the arsenal of the United States. In- 

 dustry has expanded beyond the most optimistic estimates. Agriculture in 

 the Northeast is not extensive in the light of the over-all picture, but 

 agriculture is definitely rising to the emergency with greater than anti- 

 cipated production under handicaps of shortages of labor, machinery, 

 materials, etc. The apple growers of the Northeast produced and harvested 

 one of the largest crops on record in 1942 and marketed it in a vory order- 

 ly manner at fair prices to the consumer. Indications in the orchards this 

 spring point to a crop of apples which v;ill probably be smaller than that 

 in 1942, but may not bo smaller than an average crop for the five years 

 prior to 1942. Thus, we should not expect a real shortage of apples - 

 neither should be expect a run-away market. 



The apple growers of the Northeast feel that we have a definite 

 part to play in the production of food for the successful conduct of tho 

 war, Vfo are anxious to grow, harvest and market a crop of the best apples 



