34 The Principles of Fruit-growing 



each two is a row of apples on cordons or single horizontal 

 wires; and in the intervals potatoes or other annual crops 

 are often planted. Even the wires that brace the end posts 

 of the trellises have apple trees trained on them like 

 strands of vines. Each tree is trained to a definite number 

 of branches or arms, and even the fruit-spurs are carefully 

 determined. This plantation is the property of a company 

 whose business it is to care for the land and the trees, and 

 to -find a market for the fruit. It is expensive to grow 

 apples in this way; but the best Calvilles often bring a 

 gulden (about 41 cents) apiece. 



Perhaps the most important lesson the American 

 fruit-grower has yet to learn is the fact that there are two 

 types of effort in commercial fruit-growing, and that 

 there may be pecuniary reward in fruits that are unknown 

 in the market. Failure to distinguish these two categories 

 is the result of a confusion of ideas. One grows fruit either 

 for a special and personal market, in which case he looks 

 for his own customer and is independent of general trade; 

 or he grows what the market demands, and allows the 

 machinery of trade to handle the product. In the latter 

 effort, the American fruit-grower is preeminent; but in 

 the former he has made little more than a beginning. 



GARDEN AND AMATEUR FRUIT-GROWING 



The point of view of most current American writing 

 on fruits is to give advice for the management of the 

 commercial plantation. There is another large realm of 

 fruit-growing, however, that must not be overlooked, and 

 which is as much worth the while within its sphere or 

 place: this is the growing of fruits for home use and for 

 the personal satisfaction in the effort. Once the amateur 



