STATE POMOLOGICAL S0CII;TY. 'J'J 



Excellent fruit land may be purchased almost anywhere in 

 New England, for $io to $50 an acre. If set with desirable 

 sorts of apples, and given intelligent treatment, these same lands 

 will at the end of ten years be worth at a low estimate $100 an 

 acre; while in fifteen years they will be returning a handsome 

 dividend on a valuation of from $300 to $800 an acre. The 

 increasing value of the orchard year by year, up to twenty-five 

 years of age, is an important factor in the problem. To be 

 sure the orchard must be cared for and protected during the 

 first ten years. But this is not by any means a dead load to 

 carry. Many of the lands which may be included in the tracts 

 purchased, already contain profitable bearing orchards. Small 

 fruits, or sweet corn, potatoes, and other hoed crops, may be 

 grown in the young orchards to meet the expense of cultivation 

 and fertilization. "Fillers" of Wealthy or some other early 

 maturing sort, which will come into bearing in five years, will 

 pay the expense of the orchard before the main trees reach their 

 prime. 



A'n invstment of this nature will certainly stand investigation 

 at the hands of conservative capitalists. 



POSSIBILITIES IN OTHER DIRECTIONS. 



While I firmly believe in the future of New England as an 

 apple producing region, there are many other ways in which 

 the abandoned farms of our fathers may be utilized to advan- 

 tage. The reclaiming of "poverty flats," and similar unprom- 

 ising areas in other sections of Massachusetts, has shown the 

 capabilities of some of these lands as market gardens. The 

 unqualified success which attends the intelligent management, 

 of dairy herds in all parts of New England; the almost unlim- 

 ited demands for the superior sweet corn which is grown in 

 Maine and elsewhere ; the success attending the extensive oper- 

 ations of Professor Sanborn of New Hampshire, in the lines of 

 general farming; the rapid advance in the production of pota- 

 toes, since the introduction of improved methods ; all of these, 

 and many more actual commercial operations, go to show the 

 possibilities in the direction of a new agriculture for New 

 England. 



