294 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



WESTERN METHODS IN NEW ENGLAND ORCHARDING. 



BY P. C. SEARS, PROFESSOR OF POMOLOGY, MASSACHUSETTS 

 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



Even the most casual observer, if he gives the subject any consider- 

 ation whatever, must be impressed with the fact that eastern fruit has 

 been almost entirely crowded out of the better class of our eastern 

 markets. It still conmiands a part of the second and third and fourth 

 class markets, where worm-holes and bruises and apple scab are not 

 considered insurmountable objections to an apple; but who ever sees 

 a sign displayed these days in any high-class fruit store, "Choice Mas- 

 sachusetts Apples" (or Connecticut or Vermont or Maine apples)? 

 There are honorable exceptions, of course, to this exclusion of our 

 eastern fruit, men who care for their orchards and who pack their fruit 

 carefully and skillfully, and whose fruit commands the highest market 

 price. But these men have personally overcome the prejudice which 

 exists in the minds of most consumers against our eastern apples. The 

 vast majority of New England orchardists, however, send their fruit 

 to the general market and take what is left after the several "middle- 

 men" have received their share, and little enough it is, as a rule. 



All this is discouraging to any one who is interested in eastern 

 orcharding, and who would like to see the industry take its place where 

 it belongs, as one of the leading branches of farming in New England, 

 and as the equal, if not the superior, of orcharding anywhere in the 

 country. 



The situation would be far more discouraging were it not for the few 

 cases alluded to above, where men are already making the orchard 

 business a splendid success here in New England; and were there not 

 certain factors which warrant one in believing that we have only to 

 take hold of the industry in a business-like way to make it the e(|ual 

 of orcharding in any other section. 



Let us briefly review the situation in the western apple section, and 

 see what factors have contributed to their success. To begin with, 

 their orchards are most of thorn young, many of them right in their 

 prime and others just coming into bearing, so that the fruit which they 

 are producing there at present is the very best that many of these 

 orchards will ever produce. I do not believe that the importance of 

 this factor is half appreciated by our New I'^ngland orchardists, who 

 are trying to compete against this class of fruit with fruit from or- 



