194 RURAL NEW YORK 



tablished by persons from Wyoming County, Penn- 

 sylvania, who began planting apple seeds about 1796. 



The Dunkirk sandy and fine sandy, and especially 

 the silt loam and the Ontario fine sandy loam are 

 used for nursery purposes, except at Dansville where 

 the alluvial Genesee silt loam is employed. At this 

 point, tremendous storage and shipping facilities have 

 been developed. 



Flowers and plants are grown more intensively 

 than any other crop. In New York the average acre 

 value for the main groups of farm products is as 

 follows: Farm forests $3.50, cereals $16.50, fruits 

 $35.00, vegetables $51.00, nursery $320.00, flowers 

 and plants $1725.00. These average figures appear 

 disproportionate. It must be remembered that in 

 most lines of production the average is far below 

 what a progressive grower would call fair returns. 

 This is due to the large number of farms that are 

 unsuited to the crop or are poorly managed. The 

 lower the acre value of the crop and the more exten- 

 sive the nature of its production, the more does this 

 disproportion between average and good returns ap- 

 pear. Doubtless, some such law is responsible for 

 the remarkably good showing of flowers and plants, 

 a large part of which are grown in glass houses. 



The production of flowers and plants lies close to 

 the larger cities. It represents a heavy capitaliza- 

 tion in equipment and labor. As the center of large 

 cities, New York has the greatest acreage which 

 totaled 2,979 acres and was valued at $2,750,000. 

 The acreage doubled in the ten years preceding 1909. 



