298 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pulx Doc. 



practically so, — the few blemished ones which they produce being 

 discarded, — but they are graded so that all the apples in each box 

 are exactly alike. Fig. 1 shows two boxes of western apples, — a box 

 of Spitzenbergs, from A. I. Mason, Hood River, Ore.; and a box of 

 Grimes' Golden, packed by Stirling & Pitcairn, Kelowna, B. C, 

 which the writer had shipped to Amherst for use in his classes in 

 pomology. And though these boxes came clear across the continent 

 alone, by express, thus receiving much rougher handling than they 

 would if shipped in car lots, as is usual, yet so perfect was the packing 

 and so careful had been the previous handling of the apples that they 

 arrived with practically every apple in perfect condition; and the 

 apples in the middle of the boxes and in the bottom were just as good 

 as those on the top. This is certainly the key to western success in 

 getting gilt-edged prices for their fruit. "A dozen Oregon Spitzen- 

 bergs," or "a box of Colorado Winesaps," has a definite meaning, just 

 as much so as "a dozen California navel oranges," and customers are 

 willing to pay for this certainty of getting something which is good. 



The seventh and last factor in the success which I shall mention — 

 though there are doubtless a few other minor ones which might Ije 

 included — is their climate. I believe that the dry, sunny weather, 

 which most of their famous apple sections have, puts a color and a 

 " finish " on their fruit which it is diflScult to get here in the east. Mind, 

 I don't say that it can't be done here, but certainly it is n't very often, even 

 in the few well-cared-for orchards which we can boast. That, it seems 

 to me, is the only factor in the situation which need disturb the man 

 who wants to go into orcharding here in New England ; and, as I shall 

 try to show, this is more than offset by advantages which we have. 



Let us turn now to the situation here in New England, and see what 

 factors there may be to encourage the jirospective orchardist to select 

 New England as his field of operations. In the first place, land values 

 are very much in favor of New England. Men have been "going west 

 to grow up with the country" for so long that prices for land in any 

 of the good fruit sections are abnormally high, while they are corre- 

 spondingly low here in the east. One hears constantly of the wonder- 

 ful prices which are paid out there for raw lands, or for land just set 

 to orchard, while $1,000, $2,000 and even $5,000 per acre have been 

 refused for bearing orchards. Here in New England, on the contrary, 

 splendid orchard land can be bought for $5, $10 to $50 per acre. No 

 country in the world abounds more in ideal orchard sites than New 

 England. Fig. 2 is typical of hundreds of sections here, where high, 

 rolling lands, with splendid orchard soils, can be had at prices which 

 will give the man starting an orchard on them a tremendous advantage 

 over the man who starts on the high-priced lands of the west. If one 

 can buy land ready to set out in trees at $25 per acre, — and this can 

 be done in many parts of New England, — he has just one-quarter of 

 the capital to pay interest on which the man has who uses $100 land, 



