FRUIT AS A FARM PRODUCT. 413 



as a source of profit if favorably located as to markets, 

 presents a subject worthy the attention of every farmer, 

 the limits of this occasion will not permit their considera- 

 tion in detail, and I shall ask your attention mainly to New 

 England's most valuable fruit, the apple. 



The apple is becoming every year more exclusively 

 the farmer's crop. The limited grounds in the cities and 

 larger towns will not permit its cultivation, owing to the 

 space required to grow the trees. The area of production 

 is constantly decreasing, while the demand for the fruit in 

 far greater ratio is constantly increasing. 



In 1876, the late Colonel Wilder, in an address before the 

 Pomological Society, said, "The foreign market for our 

 fruit is as well established as for our wheat." Yet few farm- 

 ers in Massachusetts at that time had any practical knowledge 

 of the fact. In that year there were exported three hun- 

 dred and forty thousand barrels of apples ; in some of the 

 years since, the number has reached nearly a million and a 

 half barrels ; the number the past season having some weeks 

 exceeded eighty thousand barrels. Formerly an abundant 

 crop was a disadvantage to the growers, as the accumulation 

 of fruit in the dealers' hands forced the market and reduced 

 prices below a paying profit. The past year has been the 

 bearing year for orchards in this vicinity, and there has been 

 an unusually large crop ; but there has been no accumulation 

 of fruit among the dealers, and the prices have steadily ad- 

 vanced from the beginning of the season to the present 

 time. 



Apples grown in some of the Canadian Provinces, the New 

 England States and the northern portion of the Middle and 

 Western States possess more points of excellence than the 

 same fruit grown in any portion of this country ; the more 

 Southern States grow the summer and early autumn varieties 

 in fair quality, but the later varieties are wanting in flavor 

 and the keeping quality, — two essentials requisite for their 

 profitable cultivation. 



Massachusetts is near the centre of the apple belt, most 

 favorably situated as regards both the domestic and foreign 

 markets, with Boston as a distributing centre, having steam- 

 boat connection with the more Southern ports, aflbrding 



