THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
•38 
A LAND OF FRUITS . 
Some Impressions of Our Fruit Growing Industries, by an Expert 
—Result of Five Years of Special Study of Conditions — 
America’s Great Advantages—Problems in Marketing — 
Overproduction in Certain Fruit Products. 
There has just been issued by the horticultural division of 
the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station an 
interesting bulletin by Professor Bailey, entitled “Impressions 
of Our Fruit Growing Industries.” In it Professor Bailey 
says : 
Some years ago, the writer was asked to undertake an inves¬ 
tigation, on behalf of the state, of the fruit growing of New 
York. An attempt was made to determine the extent and con¬ 
dition of the industry, to discover the leading difficulties, to 
devise means to combat insects and fungi, and, by means of 
lectures and publications, to give advice to fruit growers. As 
a result of the inquiries, there have appeared, by various per¬ 
sons, 34 bulletins, covering most of the fruits which are com¬ 
mercially grown in the state. In the progress of these investi¬ 
gations, it became apparent that there are greater problems in 
our fruit growing than those of soil and insects and diseases, 
that fruit growing is profitable or not, in the long run, in pro¬ 
portion as it meets the general requirements of trade and con¬ 
forms to the agricultural status of the time. It became appar¬ 
ent, also, that even the immediate problems of fertilizers, till¬ 
age, and handling of a plantation cannot be fully understood 
from mere scientific investigations at a given place. The in¬ 
vestigator must correlate and compare the results of actual 
fruit growing in many places and under many conditions to be 
sure that he arrives at broad and sound conclusions, or at princi¬ 
ples. With this thought in mind, an effort has been made, in the 
last five years, to determine the underlying reasons for some 
of the successes and failures of the fruit grower, by studying 
the actual experiences of fruit raisers ; and some of the sum¬ 
mary conclusions of this inquiry are given herewith. Such 
conclusions are necessarily colored by the personality of an 
author, and the writer must therefore say that they are meant 
to be expressions of general truths rather than statements of 
specific facts, and that he cares less whether they are accepted 
by the reader than that they shall suggest his thinking out his 
problems for himself. 
A LAND OF FRUITS. 
The fruit growing interests of the United States are very 
large and are rapidly expanding. Of some fruits we are aB 
ready raising more than we consume, and we therefore find a 
market abroad ; and if we are to compete in foreign markets, 
we should know something of the conditions under which the 
fruits of our competitors are grown. In other words it is im¬ 
portant that we understand why America is a land of fruits. 
i. America is a land of fruits because, for one thing, its 
agriculture is so recent and so little, bound by tradition, that 
the farmer feels himself free to discard old and unprofitable 
enterprises for new and relatively profitable ones. In the un¬ 
rest which has come from agricultural depression, the newer 
and less worked business of fruit growing asserts itself over 
the old-time agriculture. It does not follow, however, that 
fruit growing will be the more lucrative business. In fact, it 
is possible that it may come to be over-crowded. But its rise 
has relieved the over-worked old line farming, and, as a whole, 
has been a blessing both to those who went into it and those 
who remained out of it ; and it has exerted a most important 
secondary influence in diffusing new knowledge and thereby 
in educating the people. 
2. Again, North America is the leading fruit growing coun¬ 
try of the world, because large areas are available for the busi¬ 
ness. Fruits are grown on a large base, and in wholesale 
quantities. This means that they are grown cheaply and that 
the product is of sufficient quantity and uniformity to attract 
the attention of the market. This is illustrated in a smaller 
way by comparing the two sides of the continent: California 
fruit is often able to drive the eastern fruits from their own 
markets because it is in larger and more uniform supply and 
thereby controls the market. It is the large base upon which 
American fruit growing is established which enables it to en¬ 
ter European markets. 
COMPARISON WITH EUROPE. 
3. Political and social conditions are essentially uniform in 
all parts of the country, allowing of a free interchange and 
comparison of ideals and methods. In Europe, the various 
fruit growing centers are apt to be unique. The business is 
the outgrowth of years and centuries of local effort and tradi¬ 
tion. There are difficulties or barriers of races, languages, 
political systems, and physiographies. Uniformity of methods 
and results on a large base is practically impossible. In North 
America, we speak one language and live in practically one 
variety, if need be, and growers work towards a common end. 
4. The climate of North America is congenial to fruits. 
5. The American farmer has more help from teachers and 
experimenters than other farmers have. A fundamental idea 
of our agricultural colleges and experiment stations is to reach 
the very man who tills the soil. The teacher and the farmer 
are in most intimate contact. As a consequence, the fruit 
grower quickly assimilates new methods. He is not fettered 
by tradition. He is bold and confident. He feels that he 
controls his own efforts and destinies. He receives help at 
every doubtful point. The result of all this is that the general 
tone of agricultural business is rising, and the farmer is feeling 
more and more independent because he knows that he can re¬ 
ceive aid and advice in his perplexities. Even those persons 
who depreciate the colleges and stations, are nevertheless 
greatly dependent upon them, for they share the general mental 
uplift and partake of the new ideas which diffuse from the 
teacher and the experimenter into every farmer’s meeting, into 
the schools, and the rural press. Public sentiment is com¬ 
pelling better farming.. 
As a consequence, knowledge of all theories and practices 
which make for better fruit growing are being rapidly popular¬ 
ized. It is enough to cite only a single example,—the fact 
that spraying for the control of insects and diseases is better 
understood and more extensively practiced by the fruit growers 
of America than by those of any other country. 
It is generally the first thought of the fruit grower to plant 
that kind of fruit which he can raise. It is quite as important, 
however, to plant that which he can sell. It is the business of 
the experiment station to determine means of increasing the 
production ; it does not teach means of selling the product ex¬ 
cept as it makes the product better. There is necessity, there¬ 
fore, that problems of marketing receive more and more atten¬ 
tion from farmers ; and these problems are more complex with 
the increase of population and of competition. 
