348 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING 



FRUIT-GROWING. Pigs. 498-505. 



No branch of American agriculture has shown a 

 more complete adaptation to modern demands and 

 conditions than fruit-growing: it has become a 

 large-area and real farm enterprise ; the field prac- 

 tices have been completely changed within a score 

 of years ; the products have come to be of national 

 importance. Persons now purchase farms for the 

 sole purpose of raising fruit on them ; and on 

 mixed-husbandry farms the orcharding part has 

 taken on a broader and freer spirit, and is not 

 merely an isolated or incidental part of the farm 

 scheme. In other words, fruit-growing has assumed 



Where one would best engage in fruit-growing 

 is a question difficult to answer. Once the Editor 

 knew ; but after he went away from home he 

 began to doubt, and now he has no opinion. Fruit- 

 growing is no longer confined to a few areas here 

 and there. It is practicable in many regions that 

 have been considered to lie outside the "fruit 

 belts." Wherever any fruit has been grown suc- 

 cessfully, it can in all probability be grown again. 

 Sometimes a region that has not been exploited for 

 any kind of fruit may afford excellent natural adap- 

 tabilities. The choice of a location is usually deter- 

 mined by the general region in which one desires 

 to live ; then the intending fruit-grower can make 



Clean culture in an apple orchard. Ontario type of tree. 



commercial significance, and it must now be con- 

 sidered in any fair discussion of farm management. 

 That this has not always been true, is shown by 

 the literature of fruit-growing. The older books 

 are mostly a reflection of fruit-gardening, dealing 

 with varieties and with small special practices. 

 Within the past few years the writings have had a 

 larger sweep, conceiving of fruit-growing in much 

 the spirit that we conceive of grain-growing or 

 live-stock-raising. The personal fruit-garden, as an 

 amateur adjunct to a home, has been relatively 

 neglected. Just now, however, there is a revival 

 of the amateur interest in fruit-growing, express- 

 ing itself as a reaction from the commercial busi- 

 ness, and as a result of the suburban and country- 

 home movement. While the practices in these two 

 types of fruit-growing are similar in principle, 

 the types themselves are quite distinct. One is a 

 broadly agricultural type ; the other is a fancier 

 and connoisseur type. 



are 



inquiries as to the parts of the region that 

 best adapted. 



The farm plan. 



The farm management phase of fruit-growing 

 has received little careful study. The orchard occu- 

 pies the land for years. Usually the man who likes 

 to grow fruit dqes not care much for live-stock, — 

 the two businesses require different mental atti- 

 tudes. It is a question whether the relative lack of 

 live-stock in fruit-growing communities is not a 

 serious disadvantage, not only in relation to main- 

 taining productiveness of the land, but to the 

 developing of general rural activities. It is a ques- 

 tion, also, whether labor, teams and implements 

 could not be more economically utilized by some 

 corollary system of simple field-farming. As at 

 present conducted, orcharding is not a self-con- 

 tinuing or self-regulating business in the sense that 

 good rotation-farming is ; that is, there is no re'gu- 



