12 SPRAYING THE APPLE ORCHARD. 



The total apple crop of New Hampshire in 1899^ was 

 2,034,398 bushels, producing most of the total value of 

 its orchard fruits, $707,729, as 94.8% of all orchard trees 

 were apples. In 1870 the fruits of the state were worth 

 $743,552. so that the value of the fruit industry has re- 

 mained stationary for thirty years. In 1889 there were 

 1,744,799 apple trees and in 1899, 2,034,398, or an increase 

 of 16.6% in their number, but the gross amount of fruit 

 decreased 13.3%, and the amount of fruit per tree de- 

 creased from 1.25 bushels in 1889 to 0.97 bushels in 1899, or 

 22%. According to all statistics, the crop of 1899 was bet- 

 ter than that of any year since 1900. Accurate statistics 

 since that time are not available, except the amount shipped 

 over the Boston & Maine Railroad in 1902, kindly fur- 

 nished by its freight traffic manager, which was 523,280 

 barrels. If 20% of the crop was consumed on the farms, 

 then the total crop of 1902 was probably about 654,000 

 barrels, or about the same as 1899, 659,599 barrels. The 

 only available estimates of the New Hampshire crop since 

 then, made by the New England Homestead, indicate that 

 the crop has steadily decreased since 1900. It would seem, 

 therefore, that the average full crop is about one bushel per 

 tree. The average crop per tree for Pennsylvania is two 

 bushels, of Ohio and New York, 1.6 bushels, and the leading 

 counties of New York produce two liushels per tree, these 

 being the three leading apple states. The average for the 

 United States is 0.87 bushels per tree, so that New Hamp- 

 shire is just a little better than the average of the country. 

 But what sort of a crop is one third of a barrel per tree in 

 a good apple year? How does it happen that such is the 

 average of the state? Observe the proportion of the total 

 number of apple trees which are falling down over our 

 stone walls and encumbering our pastures with what might 

 be good fire wood, and you have the answer. 



'The statistics are all taken from the Twelfth U. S. Census un- 

 less otherwise noted. See Bulletin 113, 12th Census, Agriculture, 

 N. H. 



