THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
33 
COMMERCIAL ORCHARDS IN NEW JERSEY. 
In a paper read by Emmor Roberts of Fellowship, N. 
J., before the New Jersey Horticultural Society Mr. 
Roberts said : 
“ Is it advisable to plant commercial orchards of apples 
in New Jersey, and the best varieties?” These are the 
questions assigned me. To the first part of the question 
I would answer, that it would depend upon the conditions 
of the case, and largely upon the personality of the man¬ 
agement. If a man has a suitable soil, that is one naturally 
well drained and of fair fertility, a love for the business of 
fruit-growing, industry, liberality, courage, patience, per 
severence, is a quick observer, up with the times, prompt 
to act, with sufficient business ability to devise and adopt 
means to accomplish his purposes, and to gather, ship and 
market his fruit to the best advantage, the planting of 
commercial orchards of apples in New Jersey, would in 
his case probably be a success. But should his soil be 
unsuitable, or any of the enumerated characteristics be 
lacking, the outcome would be likely to be impaired in 
proportion to the shortcoming. 
“ It would seem that the day had passed, when a man 
could plant apple orchards in New Jersey, leave them to 
care for themselves, and gather satisfactory crops of per¬ 
fect apples, save in exceptionable years. To succeed we 
must be liberal with and watchful of our trees, must culti¬ 
vate them well, fertilize them generously and intelligently, 
must guard them from the scale, the aphis, the curculio, 
the codling moth, the caterpillar, the borer, the fungus 
and the blight; from domestic animals, from rabbits and 
from mice. Eternal vigilance is the price of satisfactory 
crops of perfect apples. 
“ The opening question would seem to imply that some 
other place, would be better for commercial apple orchards 
than New Jersey. It is doubtful if such place can be 
found. It is undoubtedly true that insect, fungoid and 
parisitic enemies have got a more substantial foothold in 
New Jersey than they have in some more newly settled 
localities, but any immunity these may now enjoy from 
these pests is believed to be but temporary; on the other 
hand, much of the soil of New Jersey is unexcelled for the 
purpose, we are surrounded by the best markets, are just 
beside the seaboard, and our facilities for marketing can¬ 
not be surpassed. Prices that would give us fair profits 
would be ruinous to those who have to make long ship¬ 
ments. Perishable varieties that we can place upon the 
market in good order, distant growers cannot market at 
all, without resorting to cold storage, thereby adding 
materially to the expense, and at the same time impairing 
the quality. It is an open question whether even the 
very pests which annoy us, do not inure to the profit of 
the resolute grower who has the courage and persistence 
to face and overcome them, and although at first sight 
yet appeared to which we are not in a good degree equal, 
some have seemed irresistible, it is believed that none have 
“ P'rom time immemorial, apples have been popular, both 
for the table and for culinary purposes, and it is not at 
all probable that they will ever be superseded. The de¬ 
mand for them may be considered assured. Years have 
been when the demand has exceeded the market require¬ 
ments, and no doubt other such years will come. But 
the same is true of almost every crop grown, not even 
excepting that staff of life, wheat. And the man who has 
the enterprise, patience and perseverence to raise apple 
orchards that will affect the general market, will not be 
apt to be discouraged by one year of low prices, and two 
such years seldom come together. 
“To sum up. If a man has a love for the business, a 
suitable soil, is willing to give years of patient care and 
labor, be liberal of fertilizers, give close and unflagging 
attention, to wage relentless warfare on all attacking 
enemies I would encourage him to plant commercial 
orchards of apples for profit in New Jersey, but not other¬ 
wise. The question also asks, ‘The best varieties.’ 
“ Perhaps no two growers could agree on a list of ten 
varieties that each would consider the best. I will there¬ 
fore simply name ten varieties, nearly all of which are old 
and well tried friends. Williams’ Early, Early Hazloe, 
Wealthy, Gravenstein, Grimes’ Golden, Plumb’s Cider, 
Smith’s Cider, Baldwin and York Imperial. These make 
a succession for the whole season and are all good grow.- 
ing, good bearing, good sized, good colored and good 
selling fruit. 
The Princess, Early Harvest, Sweet Bough, Sour Bough, 
Yellow Transparent, Red Astrachan, Edgar Red Streak, 
Duchess of Oldenburg, Orange, Carver, Benoni, Maiden’s 
Blush, Fall Orange, Fallawater, Rome Beauty, Nero, Ben 
Davis, Newtown Pippin and Ridge Pippin, are all good 
market varieties, and I am sensible that there are others 
equally good, and in some districts superior, that we have 
not proven, or have overlooked.” 
A BLACK HILLS FRUIT FARM. 
At a recent meeting of the South Dakota Horticultural 
Society at Vermillion, H. C. Warner read a paper which 
is thus summarized by American Gardening'. 
It was a revelation to the people of this state to know 
that their state contains an orchard of 9,000 trees, 7,000 of 
which are in bearing. This is nestled in one of the valleys 
of the Black Hills on what is known as Box Elder Creek. 
Here the trees were “ loaded down with fruit,” as one of 
our friends puts it, trees only three years set were break¬ 
ing with their load, and older ones were carrying two to 
two and one-half barrels each. A portion of the orchard 
is irrigated, but aside from the growth of the trees them¬ 
selves little difference could be noted, early in the season, 
between the fruit carried by the irrigated and non-irrigated 
trees. Beside the product of this orchard, Mr, Thomp¬ 
son, its owner, estimates his gooseberry crop at 300 
bushels, and his currant crop at 200 bushels. P'or one of 
the states classed among the arid regions of the great 
Northwest, this compares favorably with many of the 
older eastern states. 
