3 A vineyard of Amencan jrapes (New York) 

 Pi ki»a crites lire showu lu the foieground 



with the intioduction of the Ho\ey in 18i6 although 

 there were market plantations ot small extent alioat 

 some of the larger towns The commercial culture ot 

 blackberriea and rasp 



berries, although it be ., ,. . — 



gan about the middle of ^ ^ 



the century, did not ac 



quire distinct import 



ance until after the 



reaction from the Civil 



War. The very fact that 



there is a horticultuial i^*"^'- ' •J' 



our agricultural statu >. 

 2. With the rise ot 

 commercial pomolof,x 

 there have developed all 

 those questions which 

 are related to market 

 ing. The new market 

 ideals cluster about 

 three centers: (1) The 



demand for special pro | ' ^ . . ~ .r*" 



<lucts for special uses 



(2) the growing demand 1804 Harvest time 

 for small packages, and 



(3) the remarkiible evolution of transportation facili- 

 ties, and of cold storage. There has arisen an increased 

 desire for special grades and for particular kinds of 

 fruit. The fruits that were current fifty years ago may 

 not be good enough for the markets of to-day. Com 

 raercial pomology rests on the fact that more people are 

 consuming fruits. Many of these people buy only in 

 small lots for present consumption. They go to the 

 market often. They have no facilities for storing the 

 fruit, and they do not buy for the purpose of selling 

 Therefore the small package has come to be increas 

 ingly more important. Fig. 1897. Within the last 

 twenty-five years there has been an increasing demand 

 for a package that can be given away with the fruit 

 This demand for the small and individual package may 

 be expected to increase with all the better kinds of 

 fruits or with those that anjieal to the personal cus 

 tomer. This is true in all lines ot trade. Twenty five 

 years ago boots and shoes were distributed in large 

 board cases, but now each pair is sold in a neat card 

 board box. We are still too conservative in respect to 

 the handling of apples in barrels. In the general trade 

 and for the staple varieties of apples the barrel may be 

 the best package, but for the personal customer and 

 particularly with all the finer or dessert varieties, a 

 small package must come into use. It is, in fict 

 a question whether the bushel box would not be better 

 for even the staple apple trade. In most parts ot the i 

 ■world, except in the central and eastern part of the 

 United States, apples are not handled in barrels. The 



very fact that the grower must give attention to his 

 package as well as to the growing of his crop, forces 

 him to adopt a new point of view in his fruit-grow- 

 ing 



3 Modern commercial orcharding has developed 

 the tillage ideal Under the old rt5gime the tree was 

 able to take care of itself and to bear a produce good 

 enough to meet the uncritical demands. Nowadays, 

 hone\ei the tieemust receive the very best of care, 

 t I » 1 lie iiinual crops ot great quantity and ot 

 tl I 1 I 1 ilit\ Iheretore the plant must be sup- 

 I li \ \ nil I unlmre of plant-food and moisture. 

 lu » wli 11 It was thought that the mere appli- 

 L th u ot eiieiiiK al plant-food to the soil would be 

 bufliLient to make a plant productive. It is now un- 

 derstood howner that plant-food is only one of the 

 requi ites of good growth. The soil must be deep 

 and loose and fane so that it will hold moisture and 

 promote all those chemical and biological activities 

 whith mike the land productive. In former times 

 the best attention in tillage was given to the annual 

 crops The orchard was usually in neglect. This 

 was because the fruit plantation had small commer- 

 cial mipoitince Now that the fruit plantation has 

 risen to farst importince, in many cases, it must be 

 gi\ en as good care as any farm crop. In recent 

 years there has been great development of special 

 tools and implements for the tillage of orchard lands. 

 Ctreater attention is given to the original preparation of 

 the land so that plant- 

 ers no longer ask how 

 large the hole must be 

 to receive a tree, but 

 accept Warder's advice 

 that the hole should be 

 as large as the orchard. 

 The philosophy ot or- 

 chard tillage, as un- 

 derstood by the best 

 teachers and for most 

 paitb ot the country, is 

 i (l)to prepare the land 

 ' thoroughly at the out- 

 's t (2) to give frequent 

 ^ f li lit surface tillage in 



tl irlvpartof thesea- 

 11 I until the crop is 

 11 11 1\ or quite grown, 

 '' I and then (3)tocoverthe 



^ tyl ^ ' '/ . >^ I land with some crop 



that will remain on the 



1 the apple orchard ground over winter and 



can be plowed under in 



spring. If the land has been well prepared it is not 



to plow it deep after the first two or three 



inless one is turning under a heavy cover-crop. 



<s«# 



