138 The Commercial Apple Industry 



reveal striking illustrations of such conditions. Genesee 

 County is interested in potatoes and beans ; Oswego in 

 growing pears, dairying, and other kinds of farming. In 

 these counties the average orchard is decidedly a side- 

 line. Some of the orchards might be renovated profitably 

 but this is only advisable when the owners intend to give 

 their trees continual attention. It is impossible to pro- 

 duce strictly commercial fruit if careless methods are em- 

 ployed. A neglected orchard which is not a source of 

 profit should be cut down rather than be allowed to breed 

 disease and insect pests to attack good trees in the neigh- 

 borhood. The semi-commercial orchard was the prevail- 

 ing type in the past but it is rapidly giving way under 

 competition. 



The family orchard need not be discussed here, other 

 than to say that it fits in well with nearly any farm organi- 

 zation. It serves an entirely different purpose and is not 

 considered from a purely profit-making standpoint. 



The fourth type of farm organization to be discussed in 

 relation to apple-growing is the stock company or cor- 

 poration. It is often spoken of as " syndicate farming." 

 Much depends on the motive behind such corporations. 

 As a rule, they are merely stock-selling schemes. The 

 record of such organizations in various parts of the 

 country has been one of conspicuous failures, particularly 

 with those which capitalized orchard land at so much an 

 acre in an endeavor to sell stock or bonds to a large num- 

 ber of investors. This type of promotion lends itself to 

 fraud and misrepresentation since it flourishes in times 

 of prosperity and in good fruit years when profits are 

 large. Glittering prospects are held out to investors and 

 appeals are made to a class of persons unfamiliar with 



