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PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



I have accurate, first-hand knowledge, and I had thought perhaps a 

 relation of the lessons drawn from an extensive study of the conditions 

 obtaining there might prove of value to prospective planters of com- 

 mercial apple orchards, desirous of extending the industry into new 

 and untried regions. 



I have attempted to confine my statements to-day to a few of the 

 fundamental principles underlying successful apple orcharding in any 

 country, preferring to leave the details to some more able pen than 

 mine. 



With a very few exceptions, the older apple orchards of Los Angeles 

 County, ranging in extent from 1 to 10 acres, are merely an incident 

 to the general business of agriculture, and as such have passed through 

 all the vicissitudes common to such an arrangement. A careful study of 

 these orchards shows clearly that the conditions found there are by no 

 means due to fundamental causes, such as soil, moisture, or climate; 

 they are simply the logical accompaniments of lack of knowledge of 

 suitable varieties and poor methods of management. Especially is this 

 so in the selection of varieties. 



The condition of most of the fruit found in the earlier planted 

 orchards was due entirely to lack of this knowledge of varieties suited to 

 the local environment. The soil was suited to the requirements of apple 

 trees. Governed by this fact, the planters of these orchards, without 

 any local precedent to guide them, selected the varieties from the knowl- 

 edge they possessed of their behavior in other parts of the country, 

 failing to recognize the truth of the fact that rarely indeed does a 

 variety maintain for itself the excellence that has gained for it a repu- 

 tation when removed from the immediate locality in which it first 

 attracted attention. The result of this was. that while the trees made 

 all the growth desirable, the size, shape, color, flavor, quality, habit of 

 bearing, and time of ripening of the fruit by the most of the varieties 

 planted, was so modified as to be in some instances almost unreel! liz- 

 able. One of our best pomologists has set forth the axiom that speciali- 

 zation in varieties can never precede : it must always follow the 

 extension of horticultural centers. Yet it is fully recognized that special- 

 ization in varieties is the custom of the period, and to it can be tra led 

 the reputation and financial success of the famous apple-growing sec- 

 tions of the world. 



A full realization of the truth of these two fundamentals is what 

 makes it so difficult to furnish reliable suggestions in relation to the 

 varieties suited to new territories. Apple trees will grow and thrive in 

 a great variety of soils ; in fact, the apple is preeminently the fruit of 

 the masses, and in consonance with this Nature has endowed the apple 

 tree with a greater power of adaptability than that of any other fruit 

 tree known to horticulture. Notwithstanding all this, those desirous 

 of extending the industry — and they are legion — must keep in mind the 

 fact that it is the quality of the fruit more than the growth of the tree 

 that makes the reputation of the locality and the fortune of the planter. 

 The best we can do on this point is to generalize, and at the same time 

 emphasize the point that those desirous of planting commercial apple 

 orchards in untried regions should take pains to thoroughly familiarize 

 themselves with the behavior of the varieties growing in apple sections 

 having climatic conditions similar to the one in which they propose to 



