Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1862-08-22
AGRICULTURAL


Hovcy's Magazine (Boston) con-
tains an article on this subject, giving
some interesting facts, and also a few
statements which are not exactly facts.
Among the first class are the follow
ing in substance: The products of
Massachusetts, orchards were more
than $350,000 in 1850; and are esti-
mated over a million in 1860. New
York at the same time produced over
$2,000,000 worth of fruit; believed to
bc doubled in 1860; Maine. $3.50 COO;
Illinois, over $500, 000; and Ohio a
bout $700,G00. in 1861 nearly I5O,
GOO barrels of apples were purchased
in Western New York, at cost of
four hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars, including transportation, by two
extensive fruit dealers in Boston, and
forwarded there. The writer says
In the bearing years Of the Baldwin
our markets are supplied with the
very best fruits; but when these fail
the stock runs short, the price goes
up, and but for the Western New
York orchards, good apples would
reach a price which few could afford
to pay. Indeed it is to this source
that we look for an annual stock with
the same certainly that we look to
the great West for our wheat and
corn" The good suggestion is then
made 70 offer premiums, hot for The
best exhibition Of g few apples, but
for larger or smaller plantations Of
trees, from half an acre to ten acres,
and from two to ten years old. We
hope to see this. valuable suggestion
carried out, and we hope it will in
clude the best collections of sorts, the
best cultivation of the soil, and espec-
ally the best system Of thumb pruning
and training as applyod to young
trees. e.
Among the statements in the arti-
Gle here noticed, Of at least a doubtful
tinge, are the following:-"No, SOON
er, however, had the interest in ORCH
arding] begun to increase than a fatal
blow was given to its progress by the
wholesale denunciation Of cider as q
healthy beverage. The temperance
question was carried to such an ex-
cess that orchards were no longer to
be the source of profit TO the. planter.
The doubts we speak Of are induced
by such questions as the following,
which occur to us:-What was the
price per bushel that cider apples
Yielded after dedueting the expense Of
manufacturing the cider? How much
would the same apples have been
worth for feeding stock, on the estab-
lished basis that they have been found
about as valuable as potatoes? What
portion of good grated fruit was
manufactured into cider, and how
much more did it yield thus manufac-
tured than if sold as table fruit?-,
What was the value of the cider crop
at that time, and how much more than
the fruit crop Of 1850, namely, five
hundred thousand in Massachusetts,
and two million in New York? II
cider apples were-more profitable than
grated fruit, did they not have ten
dency to shut out improved varieties
AND thus retard pomology? Or, if
they were less profitable, why regret
their exit? There seems to be a screw.
loose somewhere in friend Hovey's
logic.
We hardly expected to see him rec
ommend in a quoted passage the"anal-
ysis of soil' as means OF determin-
inc its special wants, with a view to
the application of special manures for
orchards, and We would like to refer
him.. on this point, to the opinion of
Joseph Harris of the Genesee Farmer
Prof. johnson of Yale College and
others