The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1894-06-08
Eastern VS. Coast Fruit Trees.

04"ii was CdlleG recently 10
an article which appeared in your
paper relating to the importation of
eastern nursery stock, and if YOU will
kindly allow me space, l wish to make
few statements which l think will
De or as much interest to your rea aders
as the article above mentioned. Tt is
certain that the article was put in bv
someone OF personal interest, and as I
am a resident of county, and am
wanting to see everything put on an
equal basis and stand on it's own
merits, l take the liberty to write this
article. /, for one, am on the lookout
for something better, and if cannot
| get goodarticle in this town, or in
this county, or in this state, | 90
somewhere else for it, but if I can get
that at the same price, of course |
buy at home.
Now in regard to nursery stock I
will say that it is impossible to get as
good nursery stock in this county, or
IN TACT on this coast, as that grown in
New York State. In the article which
appeared in your issue, the writer said
the trees grown on the coast were
more healthy, live longer and con-
tlnue to bear longer. Now I am GER
tain that this man never lived in the
East. If he had, he certainly would
not have written that if he expected
to stay by the truth, and ali I ask is
that instead of taking my word for it,
or even the word of the Horticultural
board or any western horticultural
paper, your readers will look up the
the U. S. reports on this work, and
they will see in those reports where it
says that the Genesee Valley is the
best place IN the I. s. to produce
healthy, young trees. This is an un-
balsed opinion sent out by the Govern
ment of the U. S. who have the inter
! est of the whole country at large, and
! they are doing this in order to help
the people. This is fact that can
not be denied, that trees grown in the
east, or those which are growing there
now, are the best for producing an
nual crops of fruit, which I know
anything Of. Apple trees there at
tain the age of fifty years and more,
and bear heavy annual crops of fruit;
they do not get black hearted and die
when brought here, because while
being grown there, the growth is very
slow but it is healthy; they have
chance to ripen thoroughly, and when
they are transplauted they soon at
attain a large size and will outgrow
these which are grown on the coast.
A prominent fruit grower said the
other day, II thought | would like to
patronize our local nursery, cannot
do Justice to myself [ must get some
thing which is of benefit Now [ have
an orchard of two hundred trees, one
hundred of New York grown and one
hundred of coast grown. It is use
less for me to argue in favor of coast
grown. There they stand, a better
argument than any | can produce
The eastern trees are far the superior,
they are clean, straight and healthy
and are not broken down. In the
coast grown trees the wood has been
of such poor quality that, although
thev bore fruit for while. they have
not the strength to hold it. If | was
to invest in another orchard, should
be obliged to buy New York trees"
Others will make the same statements,
and if any of your readers will take
the pains to examine the trees which
are being grown here, they will find
thai at the graft there is lot of dead
wood, and although the tree grows
we'll for a few years, in Il short time
they will break off at the graft with
the weight of the fruit that is on
them. They claim their trees die
from overbearing. Ii they had good
tree this would not occur. Although
some believe that by buying trees
here they get them a little cheaper
and think they are making solid in
yestment, we want them to open their
eyes and see the difference.
IF YOU were to go into an eastern
orchard, | do not care how Old 1T is,
Won would not see any trees chopped
down, but you would see them all per-
fectlv clean, and producing good
crops OF fruit. They do this year
after year. What do you see when
Won visit number of old orchards III
this state? You see them completely
covered up with moss, scrubby and un-
cared for. and then talk of importing
nests and insects. What is the mat
ter with us at home? Acres after acres
of apple trees here are nothing but
breeding houses for insects. This cam
not be denied, and can show you
hundreds of them right in this state
If q number of these were cut down 1T
would be blessing to those people