more than twenty years ago. It was really begun 

 with a piece of work in 1890 that culminated in the 

 publication of Bulletin 19, "Report upon the Condi- 

 tion of Fruit-growing in Western New York." On 

 the passage of the Experiment Station Extension 

 Bill, or '^ Nixon Bill," in 1894, a definite program of 

 exploration of the horticultural industries of the 

 State was begun, and several bulletins were the re- 

 sult, such as ''Impressions of the Peach Industry in 

 Western New York," ''The Cultivation of Or- 

 chards, " " The Geological History of the Chautauqua 

 Grape Belt," and others. 



In the first report on this "extension work in 

 horticulture," for 1895, the writer made the follow- 

 ing statement: "Another tj^pe of research work 

 which w^e have undertaken under the auspices of this 

 bill [the "Nixon Bill," applying to the fifth judicial 

 department of the State] is the investigation of the 

 conditions of certain horticultural interests in West- 

 em New York. In the interest of these particular in- 

 quiries, we traveled no less than 25,000 miles in 

 Western New York and have visited and examined 

 many hundreds, if not thousands, of plantations. We 

 have attempted in these investigations to learn the 

 actual state of the industries and to suggest means 

 for their improvement. They are really the begin- 

 ning of a horticultural survey which can be much ex- 



3 



