APPLES 79 
THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE 
APPLE INDUSTRY 
There is probably no branch of agri- 
culture that has developed in the past 
20 years under such an impetus as has 
the fruit industry. It has developed in 
a quarter of a century from a more or 
less general and relatively unimportant 
line of agriculture to a very highly spe- 
cialized line of great importance. With- 
in this period the operation of spraying 
for insect pests and fungus diseases has 
been developed without which, commer- 
cial fruit growing, at least commercial 
apple growing as we know it today, would 
be an impossibility. Without spraying 
pests and fungi would reign supreme in 
every orchard. 
During the past 20 or 25 years fruit 
growing has been extended to practically 
every section of our country. In some 
sections where, 25 years ago, fruit cul- 
ture was not thought of as a possibility 
and where even its suggestion was a mat- 
ter of ridicule, men are now finding fruit 
growing profitable. 
In the case of the peach, for instance; 
instead of its production being confined 
to a narrow strip along the lake-shore 
of Michigan and to New Jersey, Delaware 
and the eastern shore of Maryland, as 
was the case not very many years ago, 
the peach is now produced commercially 
to some extent in practically four-fifths 
of the states in the Union. In other 
words, instead of being adapted only to 
the peculiar conditions of a few restricted 
areas, the experience of later years has 
demonstrated that with suitable varieties 
and proper cultural methods peaches may 
be successfully grown under a very wide 
range of conditions. And so it is with 
many other fruits. 
We very commonly refer to the “pres- 
ent status of fruit growing.” What is 
the “present status’? What is the road 
that has been traveled in the present de- 
velopment of fruit culture? Whither are 
we bound in its future development? 
The presentation in this connection of 
a few significant points of an historical 
nature might be of interest, showing as 
they do something of what the “present 
status” of fruit growing is in contrast 
with past stages of its development. 
American pomological literature is only 
about 100 years old and in the first book* 
relative to fruit growing and gardening 
that was published in America, Bernard 
M’Mahon, its author, makes these inter- 
esting statements: ‘“But the misfortune 
is, that too frequently after orchards are 
planted and fenced, they seldom have any 
more care bestowed upon them. Boughs 
are allowed to hang dangling to the 
ground; their heads are so loaded with 
wood as to be almost impervious to sun 
and air, and they are left to be exhausted 
with moss and injured by cattle, ete. 
ok 2 ed 
“The feelings of a lover of improvement 
can scarcely be expressed on observing 
the almost universal inattention paid to 
the greater number of our orchards, and 
that people who go to considerable ex- 
pense in planting and establishing them 
afterwards leave them to the rude hand 
of nature; as if the art and ingenuity 
of man availed nothing, or that they 
merited no further care!” 
Is it fair to say that the average or- 
chard of today is a more or less neglected 
orchard? If so, then perhaps there is a 
grain of comfort in thus being assured 
that the average orchard of our time is 
at least no worse in respect to the gen- 
eral condition in which it is maintained 
than was “the greater number” of the 
orchards 100 years ago. 
Varieties Propagated 
A numeral inventory of the apple vari- 
eties that have entered into American 
pomology shows some interesting facts. 
Such an inventory is made possible 
through a bulletin in the Bureau of 
Plant Industry series issued several years 
ago by the Department of Agriculture, 
entitled: ‘Nomenclature of the Apple: 
A Catalogue of the Known Varieties Re- 
ferred to in American Publications from 
1804 to 1904.” This catalogue, as the 
name implies, contains a list of all the 
variety names, both accredited names and 
synonyms, that have been published in 
American works during the century 1804 
* American Gardener’s Calendar by Bernard 
M’Mahon, 1806. 
