NEW ENGLAND 



1401 



the railways. Moreover, people had not 

 become accustomed to using apples, for 

 fruit was then considered an unnecessary 

 article of diet. 



Following this apparent overproduc- 

 tion of fruit, and with the opening up of 

 large tracts of farm land in the West, 

 came a general decline in land values, 

 causing heavy losses both to landown- 

 ers and banking houses. The apple 

 growers became discouraged and many of 

 them abandoned their farms and went 

 West to take up land and to follow grain 

 growing. 



Of those who remained in the East, 

 many cut down their orchards entirely, 

 and others allowed them to remain with 

 a hope that even without attention, they 

 might produce enough to supply the fam- 

 ily with fruit and cider. In this way the 

 apple orchards came to be a side issue, 

 or an adjunct to the regular farm system. 



With the development of the fruit in- 

 terests, the destructive action of injuri- 

 ous insects and of fungous diseases be- 

 came relatively more pronounced. Ap- 

 ple scab suddenly became a serious pest, 

 the codling moth became more abundant, 

 the canker worm periodically worked de- 

 struction, and finally the San Jose scale 

 made its appearance. The fruit growers 

 knew very little about insects or dis- 

 eases and still less about methods of 

 control. It is not surprising, in the face 

 of such obstacles, that so little progress 

 has been made in the growing of apples 

 on a commercial basis. 



Present Conditions 



Many of the orchards of the early days 

 are still in existence. In some of them, 

 live stock have been allowed to pasture. 

 In others, successive crops of hay have 

 been harvested and in these the soil 

 has become so depleted in fertility that 

 the trees are dying from starvation. In 

 still others, brush has been allowed to 

 grow up, and it is not an uncommon oc- 

 currence to find apple trees at regular or- 

 chard distances growing in the younger 

 forests. A few of the early planted or- 

 chards are being moderately well cared 

 for and are producing profitable crops. 



Some may be profitably renovated and 

 others have passed the point of profitable 

 production and should be grubbed out. 

 Many of the old orchards are not well 

 situated, the early planting having fol- 

 lowed along the valleys. The few or- 

 chards on the higher levels invariably 

 produce fruit of better quality and ap- 

 pearance. 



Neglected Orchards 



The greatest hindrance to the apple 

 industry in New England today is the 

 presence of so many uncared for apple 

 trees. One of our prominent apple buy- 

 ers recently made the remark that it 

 would be a good thing for New England 

 if all apple trees within its borders were 

 "wiped out." That is, he believed that 

 in order to get rid of the worthless trees 

 we could afford to sacrifice all the good 

 ones. This is probably true, but we 

 would rather keep the good ones. The 

 advent of the San Jose scale in our New 

 England orchards was to many fruit 

 growers the "last straw," but, in the 

 opinion of the writer, it is on this little 

 insect that we must depend to destroy 

 these worthless trees. It is rapidly ac- 

 complishing this task, especially in 

 Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island. 



The apple will stand neglect probably 

 better than any other crop, and a tree 

 without any care will continue to bear 

 fruit for many years. A knowledge of 

 this fact on the part of the New England 

 farmers has been the cause of such whole- 

 sale neglect as is in evidence everywhere, 

 and is largely responsible for the present 

 condition of the industry. The farmer 

 has learned that corn and potatoes, if 

 not fertilized and cultivated, will fail, 

 and that cattle and hogs if not fed, will 

 immediately show the effect of neglect, 

 but the apple orchard he has come to 

 know will bring fair returns, even with- 

 out attention. A farmer in the neighbor- 

 hood of the college was asked recently 

 which crop on his farm paid him best. 

 He replied that his apple crop undoubt- 

 edly was his best-paying crop. Yet this 

 man is spending his energies raising corn 

 and hogs, and allowing a 30-acre apple 



