The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-02-10
NEW ENGLAND APPLES THH
 REST


 Boston, Feb. 5.-The many times great grandparents of the New Eng land apple, it is claimed, was brought over in the Mayflower by Governor John Winthrop. But 1t has been also stated that when Winthrop was an chored off these shores the hermit Blackstone, already had apple trees growing about his cabin at Shawmut Neck. So the lineage of the king of fruits is somewhat confused, but In any case New England has inherited full title to her noted crops of the present day.
 It Is probable that the small cluster of apple trees in Blackstone's orchard were the only ones growing In New England at that time. There are now approximately a dozen million apple bearing trees within our boundaries and Boston the scene of the first or- chard, is the greatest apple shipping port in the world. From one hundred and fifty to two hundred million ap- pies are brought into Boston every year by the New England railroads and shipped across to Europe.
 The past season has been poor one for apples, a poor apple year" because 1904 was a good apple year." When the trees bear heavily one year, as they did in 1904, they exhaust their vitality and the next year can offer but a scan- ty harvest. But other causes contrlbu- ted to cut down the yield this year. Cold rains in the spring prevented the setting of the blossoms. Insect pests have been particularly bad while fun gus and other diseases have played their part in reducing the size of the crop. The American Agriculturist es- inmates this years apple crop for the entire country at 23, 495, 900 barrels as against 45,S6O,00O barrels in 1904. In New England the yield will not total much more than half as much as last year.
 Yet shipments from Boston have not fallen off in anything like the same proportion. It is true that January figures so far show a shrinkage of a half from those of year ago, but in December exported 79,279 barrels, 6.14O more than during December, 1904, and in November 137,S22 barrels, falling off of less than third from last sea- son.
 The principal reason for what. under the circumstances, is a good showing. is the high price of apples in Liverpool and London, which has drawn a large percentage of the crop abroad. and Ire favor which American apples have al- ways met in the English markets. A writer in the Saturday Review once said, in complaining of the preference given by English purchasers to Amer ican fruit: "'The explanation seems to Joe partially, at any rate in the greater pains which American fruit growers bestow upon the gathering, storing and packing of the fruit It may seem a half the selling value of crop of des- sert apples may be thrown away by injudicious packing. That the best of the American fruit carefully picked and packed, should present better In Covent Garden. than the average English apples, which of ten look as if they had been beaten from the trees like walnuts, is not to be wondered at."
 Most of the apples raised in New England are sold on commission by the | local exporters who, in their anxiety for foreign markets, are very strict about the honesty with which the barrels are packed. In spite of the fact that no such stringent legal regulations have been devised for the apple traffic in