APPLES §3 
ing accepted among fruit growers. This 
decade, too, Was one in which truit grow- 
ing was greatly extended as the following 
figures taken from the Eleventh and 
Twelfth United States Census Reports will 
show. 
Number of Apple and Peach Trees of Bearing Age in United States 
Year __ Spple Increase 
1890 | 120; "120,152 795 
#1900 | 201 704 7b4 bd%G 
**1910 | 151, 323,000 
aia 
Decrease Peach Increase Decrease 
53,885,597 
99,919,428 $5 4% 
33 4% 94,507,000 5 7% 
tag 
* Since this article was wuiitten returns from the Thirteenth Census have been published 
showing a talling off in the number of trees of bearing age during the decade frum 1900 to 
334 per cent and of peaches. of 57 per cent fiom the figures of 1900. 
* The number of _ bearing apple trees 1eported in 1910 is 151, 
registering a loss” in apples of 3 
94, 507, 000 When the 
1910 
323,000 and of peaches 
20 year period is taken into consideration there was an imcrease in 1910 
of 78 9 per cent in apples over 1590 and an inciease of 57 per cent 1n peaches for the same period. 
It will thus be seen that during the 
decade trom 1890 to 1900 there was an 
increase of 68 per cent in the number of 
bearing apple trees and 85.4 per cent in 
the number of bearing peach trees in the 
country 
It is hardly possible to refer to such a 
large increase in the producing capacity 
of orchard trees without at the same time 
suggesting that perennial question. “Is 
there danger of over-production?” 
There 18 no denying on theoretical 
grounds that such a danger does exist, but 
the probability is very remote. 
This fear of over-production is not mod- 
ern though it is very up-to-date in the 
matter of its recurrence It was said a 
half century ago that in 10 years’ time 
apples would not be worth picking and 
there 1s said to be a record of a man in 
Western New York who cut down his 
orchard because of his fears in this re- 
spect. Today, so far as any actual experi- 
ence goes, we are apparently no nearer 
the point of over-production in apples 
than was the case 25 and 50 years ago. 
I have recently had before me the an- 
nual commercial estimates of apple pro- 
duction for a consecutive period of 17 
years. The annual average of the esti- 
mates for this period is 41,134,000 barrels. 
The average for the past 10 years, includ- 
ing the crop of 1910, is 32,572,000 barrels 
and for the past five years the average is 
only 27,966,000 barrels. 
It is evident that for one cause or an- 
other the production has been falling off 
on the basis of the several periods men- 
tioned, even in spite of the great extension 
in the planting of apple orchards. 
No doubt this drop in production is 
largely accounted for by the fact that for 
quite a long period of years conditions have 
been unfavorable for the production of 
fruit in large and import fruit growing 
regions And when we think of it, is it 
not a fact that the year is a very excep- 
tional one in which all fruit regions pro- 
duce a full or normal crop of fruit? 
Such a year so far as apple production 
was concerned apparently prevailed in 
1896, when the largest estimated apple 
crop in the history of the country was 
produced, amounting to more than 69,- 
000,000 barrels, according to the commer- 
cial estimates. 
Another very interesting feature follows 
in natural sequence. The development of 
mechanical cold storage of fruits has been 
almost contemporaneous with the develop- 
ment of spraying and the great expansion 
of orchard planting. In fact, cold stor- 
age would amount to but little so far as 
apples are concerned if it were not for 
spraying, because there would be but 
very few apples worth storing if it were 
not for the use of insecticides and fun- 
gicides. 
It was about the year 1890 that the 
first mechanical cold storage plant was 
used for storing apples. The development 
was rapid, once its importance was real- 
ized, but by 1896, the year of the big 
crop, the capacity of all such plants com- 
bined was relatively insignificant com- 
pared with the capacity at the present 
