The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-01-08
horticulture.
WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA THE IDEAL
COUNTRY FOR APPLE GROWING, I'll
EAST FOR TRUCKING, THE CEN
IRE FOR PEACHES, ETC.

Address of President j. van L1ndley at the
Annual Meeting of the State Horticultural
Society, Asheville, N. C Dec. 10, 1900.
AS President of the Society, it be-
comes my duty to point out the
work for the Society, and to give my
own opinion and observations of the
fruit interests of the Stute, or at
least a few points.
Eastern North Carolina. The
growing of strawberries has become
immense. About - years ago, while
attending a nurserymen's association
at Chicago, a question was asked {:
"What are we going to do about
growing strawberries? We no longer
get fancy prices the South gets the
fancy prices, and when straw
berries are ripe prices are down" A
party answered: $50 South, young
man, ii you want fancy prices"
Then the noted editor, the late
Orange Judd, took the floor, and
pictured great fields of strawberries
about Norfolk and Charleston that
he had e the past season, the fruit
rotting in the field, all was a dis
gushing sight, and said that too
many had already gone South. So
his words were di~scOuraging to every
SOutherner or any one thinking OF
/ going South. Al that time growers in
Eastern North Carolina were ship
ping only a few crates q day during
the season, but, now, regardless of
what the eminent editor said, as
high as twenty crates Il day are be-
ing shipped, netting the growers u
good profit. And now strawberry
farms + opening up rapidly ali
along the line from GOldsbOrO to
Wilmington, which is the main straw
berry section.
In LiddLe Worth Carolina all sum-
mer fruits succeed well only Il few
varieties of winter apples Will sue
coed. The same can be said of the
East also, Us there Is not a farm in
the entire State but that can have
"a supply of fruit if they know what
to plant, varieties, etc. Here comes
in the work for places in the United
States. So here they have been
compelled to listen to and take ad-
vice from missionaries sent out by
the nurserymen and by them much
advice has been given, and great i'm
! provements have been made.
New fruits, or foreign fruits /:
Some are disposed to work against
foreign fruits, forgetting that many
of our old fruits are from Europe.
The Bartlett pear is from Europe !;
NeverfuiI or Gencting apple, and the
majority of old standard pears and
plums are of European origin, which
were 50 popular twenty years ago,
but since the introduction of the
Oriental fruits, principally from
Japan, the pears and plums, they
have nearly isolated the old vurie-
ties, undnearly every one who plants
u pear today wants Keiffer, LeConte,
CARRIER and Magnolia, all of the
Oriental class or if plunS, he wants
Red June, Abundance, Burbank,
Wickson, and all Japan varieties.
Three GOurths Of our sales are from
this class of stock today.
Peaches are ripening now five
weeks earlier than whenI was IL boy.
New varieties: The EIberta peach
originated about twenty years ago
in Georgia. Today it is d national
variety, and has made peach grow
ing Il success in Georgia and many
other places in the United States.
He who keeps up with the fruit inter
estS needs to plant new varieties, or
he might get lett. the world is
moving everything is changing for
better; the same thing occurs in
varieties of fruits. Improvements
in varieties are as great us IN any
other line Of business.
Western North CaroIina, the ideal
apple section of America. I have
been preaching this doctrine for
thirty years. Soon after the war, at
u meeting of the American Pomo-
logical Society ut Richmond, Va, ID
collection of Western North Carolina
apples carried off the prize. The
same results have been obtained
wherever they have been shown on
either side of the Atlantic. Hun
dreds Of letters have answered from
people writing me on North Caro-
lima fruit growing, and 1 could cite
them to Western North Carolina