CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 13 



NEW ENGLAND'S OPPORTUNITY IN ORCHARDS. 



By John Ckaig, Professor of Horticulture, Cornell University, 

 Ithaca, N. Y. 



Introduction. 



Is it not remarkable that a conference should, be called to con- 

 sider the welfare of an industry which is almost as old as the 

 history of New England, and which from the standpoint of a 

 problem has been solved repeatedly in the passing of the last two 

 centuries? New England was the cradle of the fruit industry 

 of the United States, and long before the great grain and meat 

 producing belt of the Mississippi was explored or the fruit regions 

 of the Pacific coast were known, orchard fruits were cultivated 

 with pleasure, success and profit in abundant quantities in these 

 eastern States. 



Again, we must remember that New England gave to these 

 newly developed fruit regions of the southwest and of the north- 

 west Pacific coast many of the varieties of apples which they are 

 now growing with such magnificent success. The Baldwin, the 

 Eoxbury Eusset and the Rhode Island Greening are all products 

 of New England; while the Northern Spy, the Spitzenburg and 

 the unrivalled Newtown Pippin are contributions from the Empire 

 State. But more than these. New England was instrumental in 

 introducing those well-known hardy varieties which have paved 

 the way for orcharding operations in the more rigorous regions 

 of the middle northwest. Of these we may mention the Oldenburg, 

 the Alexander and the Astrakan, — a group of apples which have 

 done so much to encourage the begiiiner in fruit growing in a 

 land of com, wheat and blizzards of the upper Mississippi valley and 

 contiguous country. It is hardly necessary to prove the claim that 

 apple growing became an important domestic industry in early 

 colonial days, yet a few records from the story of pioneer life 

 may act as salutary reminders and assist in reawakening our pride 

 in the fruit industry. 



In the export trade New England lias shown the way, for as 



