6 Preface 



The present age is witnessing a remarkable advance- 

 ment in fruit growing, as well as all other lines of agricul- 

 ture. This development is coming about through the fact 

 that greater individual attention is being given to each 

 line of work. Fruit-growing has been largely a matter 

 incidental to the general line of farming. But as it is the 

 specialist in any line who succeeds, so it has come that the 

 business of growing fruit has been drawing away more and 

 more from its connection with other phases of farming. 

 This very fact is one of the great reasons for the rapid 

 advancements which have been made in orcharding. So 

 rapid is the advancement in fruit-growing that the pro- 

 gressive orchardist must be continually on the alert to keep 

 up with the new ideas and practices which are being devel- 

 oped. Ten years ago the box as an apple package was prac- 

 tically unknown. The spraying machine was a novelty and 

 was looked upon with suspicion; fruit-growing under irriga- 

 tion was a novelty in the extreme arid cold storage plants 

 were rare. Even so recent as three years ago, but few fruit- 

 growers had ever heard of really effective means of beating 

 Jack Frost at his own game. But the orchard man of the 

 hour knows how to spray effectually, how to pack his fruit, 

 how to fight frost; recognizes all of these things as vital 

 factors in the management of his business. 



The facts which are outlined in this volume have been 

 culled and compiled from many of the important articles 

 which have appeared in the columns of The Fruit-Grower 

 during the past two or three years, as well as from some 

 of the bulletins which have issued from the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture and the State Experiment Stations. These articles 



