COMPE TI TION. 8 5 



It certainly seems that in scarcely any line has there 

 been a more rapid increase of competition than in that of 

 fruit-raising. In 1859 the value of the production of the 

 orchards of the United States was $19,991,885 ; in 1879 it 

 rose to $50,876,154, or an increase of 154 per cent. Mr. 

 Loring now estimates, that by adding all the fruits sold 

 in small cities and villages, and those consumed on the 

 farms enumerated, " the annual value of the fruits of the 

 United States would not fall much below $200,000,000." 



It must also be remembered that at no former period 

 in the history of America has there been a more rapid 

 increase in the area of new orchards than during the last 

 ten years. 



In Canada, in recent years, pomology has become the 

 most popular science of husbandry. Investments in fruit 

 culture are made by both the practical farmer, the theo- 

 rist, and the speculator. And now, as with their contem- 

 poraries, the orchardists of Canada have to deal with the 

 question of competition in a way not dreamed of twenty 

 years ago, except, perhaps, by the very observing publi- 

 cist or economist. In 1871 the crop of apples in Ontario 

 was estimated at 2,000,000 of bushels ; seventeen years 

 later, 1888, at 20,000,000 of bushels, an increase of over 

 900 per cent., though the population of the Dominion had 

 not increased 30 per cent. 



The apple production of the Annapolis valley in the 

 year 1871 was estimated at 45,000 barrels ; in 1888, at 

 300,000 barrels, — an increase of 566 per cent. In 1871, 

 80 per cent, of the standard varieties were marketed at 

 home ; at present 50 per cent, of the yield would glut the 

 home market even in a " short-crop " season. It is gener- 

 ally estimated that when the young orchards already 

 planted get into bearing — or ten years hence — the pro- 

 duction of the valley will be over a million of barrels, or 



