OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMMERCIAL APPLE GROW- 

 ING IN NEW ENGLAND. 



By Prof. F. C. Sears, Amherst, Mass. 



Delivered before the Society, January IS, 1908. 



It is difficult to understand why commercial orcharding is not 

 more extensively carried on in Massachusetts, and, indeed, through- 

 out all of southern New England, at the present time. We have 

 practically every condition which is conducive to the success of 

 the enterprise, and as few" of the difficulties as one will usually find; 

 and the limited nvimber of those who are engaged in it on a reason- 

 ably large scale are certainly making it a financial success. 



The only explanation which I can suggest for the relatively 

 small number of men who are at present carrying on orcharding 

 on a commercial basis is that Massachusetts is so largely a suburban 

 country that men have gone into dairying and market gardening, 

 for the products of which there is good market and the returns 

 from which begin to come in almost at once. But it seems to me 

 that this idea has been largely overworked. While it is true that a 

 tomato comes into bearing more quickly than an apple tree yet the 

 popular idea as to the length of time required for an apple tree to 

 bear fruit is based largely on the results of the old style of orchard- 

 ing when trees were planted out on some hillside, which was n't 

 suitable for anything else, and received no further attention from 

 anyone but the cattle and sheep until they did at last produce some 

 fruit. Under this method it was usually ten or twelve years before 

 apples bore fruit, and correspondingly long with other fruits, so 

 that it is small wonder if the impression got abroad that one was 

 to a large extent working for the next generation in starting an 

 orchard; an impression which is not conducive to popularizing 

 any project. 



But whatever the explanation we adopt, or whether we pass it 



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