CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 15 



homes. Experience in later years has demonstrated that the more 

 elevated portions give better results. The valleys should be de- 

 voted to farm and vegetable crops, while the hillsides and lighter 

 soils are admirably adapted to apple growing. Old orchards on 

 the hillsides may often be profitably renovated, while the valley 

 orchard is usually a doubtful proposition, because of the relatively 

 poorer quality of the product. 



Xot less important than the change of point of view regarding 

 location is tire change of point of view regarding management. 

 Thousands of the old farmstead orchards were so small that they 

 were hardly worth caring for as a farm crop. Nevertheless, like the 

 farm hen, they were frequently the means of squaring the grocery 

 bill at the country store, and often enabled the housewife to secure 

 many small necessaries which the revenue of the farm or the 

 farmer was unable to provide. The fact is they were not cared 

 for. They are not cared for as a crop. Some men have not the 

 taste. Many possess neither interest nor knowledge. Not every 

 farmer can be made a fruit grower. The fact that the old orchard 

 has been regarded as an adjunct instead of an integral part of 

 the farm system has retarded the industry. Again, an orchard 

 investment is one which matures slowly. It is true that it can 

 be made completely self-supporting during the maturing period; 

 yet this is not generally understood, and planting is retarded by 

 lack of knowledge and lack of capital. 



These conditions prevail practically all over the Xew England 

 States. In Vermont orcharding is a mere side issue to other more 

 important lines of husbandry, writes the horticulturist of the Ex- 

 periment Station. He states, further, that apple growing offers 

 exceptionally good opportunities to any young man who is willing 

 to give the same careful study and treatment that orchards are 

 receiving in the western States. Professor Stuart says : — 



Only recently one of our fruit growers volunteered the statement that 

 in 1905 he realized $1,180 from fruit grown upon 11/2 acres of land in 

 Northern Spy apples, and that from an orchard of nearly 100 acres 

 he is realizing from $200 to $400 per acre annually. 



Conditions in Ehode Island are less promising than in Vermont. 

 Professor Stene of the Ehode Island Experiment Station writes : — 



Fruit growing in Rhode Island, in common with other lines of agri- 

 culture, has suffered considerably from the tremendous development 

 of manufacturing industries and the consequent migration of popula- 

 tion from the country to the cities. Scattered about the State are still 



