POMOLOGY 



important and charac- 

 o£ North America. In 

 fact, North American pomology may justly be said to 

 be the best and most progressive in the world if excel- 

 lence is measured by commercial standards, quantity of 

 product, and the quickness 

 and precision with which 

 scientitic theory and discov- 

 ery are applied to it. Most 

 remarkalile examples of the 

 quick assimilation and ap- 

 plication of theoretical 



of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees " in 1817, and followed 

 by Thacher's "American Orcbardist" in 1822. These 

 pioneer writings gave much of their space to orchard 

 management, with little mere compilation of descrip- 

 Subsequent volumes, for nearly 



,^*. 





\m 



1895. 



The American ideals 



Pom 



ke 



the European. The Ameri 

 can aims at uniformity over 

 large areas. The European 

 gives more attention to spec 

 training of fruit-trees. This 



1892. Double planting, showiner bush-fruits growine 

 ; to be discouraged i 



sful when higli cultun 



1 practices, particularly in 

 well illustrated inAmer- 

 vith European nurseries 

 (»ee Nursery). The American merely prunes his fruit 

 trees in the nursery: he does not train them. The 

 American ideal in nursery stock is shown in Fig. 1896. 

 8ee Prttnhtfr. 



In nearly nil iinrt« of ttio country the extension of 



fruit ;;r(iwiiiL' - '! - ' ' 'inlii-al change of base now 



tiikiiig plrir, I _ ... rutions. This growth of 



the truitlni-:i . I ; .-. because the Consumption 



of fruit !■< ii: I .: . .u'st all people, the facilities 



for transpnr-i I :i ; . i . n improved, scientific dis- 

 covery has ill , ! 1 1 ...luction of good crops, and 

 because m:ni. .. ..f farming have been rela- 



tively unpiMiii .i.. - I ii!.' Innately, there are no com- 

 plete statistii-s yet published of the pomological re- 

 sources of the United States or Canada. 



Whilst the phenomenal development of American 

 pomology has been due in great measure to climatic and 



1891. Young plum orchard, showing cle 

 heading. 

 Some frrowers head-in \igoro»is you 

 above, fmt others prefer t ' ' 



tillage and high- 



economic < 



under all circumstances. 



Iso has been hastened by book 

 fifty authors have contributed 

 iize, either on the general sub- 

 beginning with Coxe'3'"View 



fifty years, were in large part compilations and colla 

 tions of accounts of varieties. To this latter class 

 belong the works of Prince, Kenrick, Downing, Thomas, 

 Warder. It is only in the present time that we have 

 come to treat the subject fundamentally, by giving the 

 weight of discussion to principles of orchard manage- 

 ment. For further discussion of books, see the article 

 Horticulture. 



The evolution of our pomology is well illustrated in 

 the radical change of ideals within the last quarter 

 century. These new points of view may be arranged 

 conveniently under seven general heads: 



1. The most important point of view connected with 

 our commercial pomology is the fact that there is a 

 horticultural industry as distinguished from a general 

 agricultural industry. At the opening of the nine- 

 teenth century our agriculture was more or less homo 

 geneous, largely because the extent of it was limited 

 and because there was little demand for other than 

 the few staple commodities. The horticulture of that 

 time was confined chiefly to a small area about the 

 homestead. A few vegetables, flowers and fruits in a 

 small plantation, with here and there a single green- 

 house, represented the horticultural effort of the time. 

 At the present day we conceive of whole states and 

 of entire geographical areas as horticultural regions. 

 Persons now buy farms with the explicit purpose of de- 

 voting them to the production of fruits or other horti- 

 cultural products. Even fifty years ago horticulture 

 was largely an amateur's avocation, but today it is one 

 of the leading commercial occupations of the country, 

 and the most important single factor in it, in America, 

 is pomology. With this rise of the horticultural indus- 

 tries came a demand for new knowledge respecting a 

 host of subjects which were undreamed of even as late 

 as a half century ago. The cotemporary progress in 

 pomology is largely a breaking away from the old 

 ideals. Those persons who are still laggards are the 

 ones who are holding to the point of view of a genera- 

 tion ago. Practices that were good enough for amateur 

 purposes, or for the incidental and accidental fruit- 

 growing of our fathers, may be wholly inadequate to the 

 new time conditions. At the opening of the century 

 there was practically no commercial orcharding. The 

 apple was grown somewhat extensively in many parts of 

 the country, particularly in New England, but it was 

 used chiefly for the making of cider. Small-fruit grow- 

 ing, as a business, had not developed. In fact, com- 

 mercial strawberry-growing may be said to have begun 



