The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-10-11
AMERICAN FRUIT CULTURE.
Interesting Pomol0gical Stntistics--Nearly
Five Million Acres Devoted to Fruit
CuIfurp.

Interesting Pathological Statistics--Nearly
Five Million Acres Devoted to Fruit
Culture.
Few persons, probably, except those
who are actively connected with pomo-
logical interests, have any idea of the
rapid growth and present extent of fruit
culture. Anindication of the increasing
interest in the subject is the organiza-
ton of the Pathological Society, which,
at the last session in Chicago, included
representatives in person from twenty
eight States, Territories and Provinces,
with letters of correspondence in nine
others, making a total of thirty-seven.
When the Society first met, in 1S4S, the
delegates present represented twelve
States. More substantial indications of
the progress of fruit culture are, how
ever, to be found in the statistics which
show its present condition.
According to the government state
ment, the number of acres under cul-
tivation in orchards, vines and small
fruits is estimated at 4,500,000, The
number of trees is estimated as follows
Apples, 112 ,000,0 900 pears, %, 260, 900;
peaches, 112, go, 900; grapes, 141, ,260,-
900; total, 1893, 100000. The estimated
value of fruit products is: Apples, $780,
100000; pears, S14, 1906 peaches,
$50, 135, 600; grapes, 81, 11S,0 straw
berries. S., 200, 600; other fruits, S10,-
432, 800 making total Of S133, ,216, 700,
or nearly equal to one-half of the value
of our average wheat crop. California,
in addition to her figs, oranges, olives
and almonds, has nearly third of the
whole grape area, sixty thousand acres
of vineyards, and forty-three millions of
vines, yielding annually, besides grapes
and raisins for the market, ten millions
of gallons of wines. The wines of Mis-
souri,, Ohio and other States bring the
whole wine product up to fifteen millions
of gallons.
A few illustrations will suffice to show
the immense quantities of fruits which
are sent to market in addition to what is
consumed at home. OF strawberries,
there were received in a single day in
the New York market, at the height CT
the last season, upward of 10000 bush
els. The shipments from Norfolk this
years have been over 5000, 600 quarts
Boston alone receiving from that source
more than 10000 bushels. The peach
crop of 1875, i'll Delaware and Maryland
WIS III DtuWttl l,UUU,-
600 and S,000,000 baskets. California
sent East, i'll 1876, 334 car loads of fruit,
of four hundred bushels each an in
crease of more than one hundred per
cent. over the previous year. Of the
strawberry, from San Jose, Cal, and
vicinity, there were sent some days, for
home consumption, forty tons; and in a
circuit of about five miles there are more
than thousand acres of this fruit under
cultivation. In Illinois, very little fruit
was raised, except for home use, until
1910 now there are 800, 900 acres of or
chards in that State. At the last ex-
hibition of the Georgia horticultural
society the display included nearly two
hundred varieties of fruits, among them
fifty-six varieties of peaches, upwards of
fifty of grapes, and forty of pears. The
value of the apple product in single
county in New York is estimated, in
good seasons, at million dollars and
in addition to those consumed at home
the State exports one and half million
of barrels. Michigan also is a great
fruit producing State. the annual value
of the crop being $4, 100000. Reports
from the Southern States and from Cali
fornia show immense growth in the cul-
tivation of oranges and other tropical
fruits, and it appears probable that all
that is needed for the consumption oi
the whole country can be supplied by
| these sections.