The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1908-10-15
Apples, East and West.

William Blackstone was not only the
first man to settle upon land that is now
part of Boston, but, SO far as the early
chronicles enlighten us, he was the first
man to introduce the app e-growing in
dustry into the New World, and when he
sold out to the Puritan colony he could
conscientiously have advertised his estate
as stocked with fruit trees in good bear
ing condition. While in any event the
apple would probably not have been long
in commencing itself to the New England
farmers, to the pioneer belongs first hon
or, rather more of it. perhaps, than his
tory has given him. No other fruit has
proved of so great value to the people of
this country. 7sComfort me with apples, :"
said the singer in the Canticles, ''for
am sick of love-" and many in the cen
turtles since who have been sick in body
or mind have found comfort and healing
in this standard fruit.
But the most possible of the good ex-
ample of the Rev. William Blackstone
has not been made in the section where
he set it. The opportunities for fruit
growing that New England has afforded
have not been improved as they should
have been. The apple orchard has been
a mere incident of our general agricul-
ture, and it seems to be more and more
regarded in that light. The gnarled and
decadent apple-trees which offend the
sight in many places are painfully i'm
pressive symbols of the neglect which
has blighted so many of our agricultural
processes in the older sections. The trees
are neither pruned, cultivated nor pro-
tected, and the wonder is that in this
unequal struggle they render so good
accounts of themselves as they do.
Perhaps in time, through reflex action,
we shall feel the stimulus of the enter
prise which in portions of the far West
has made this fruit such source of reve-
nue.. The advertisements in that region
proclaim orchard lands as conspicuously
as wheat lands, and the prices are consid-
eraby higher There are nursery con-
tractors who agree to plant an orchard
with any desired varieties and care for it
until it is in bearing condition, and farm
of twenty acres well managed under these
conditions will keep a family not only in
comfort but in reasonable Injuries as
well. There is soon to be held at Spo-
kane, Wash, national apple show to
which almost every apple district in the
United States and Canada has agreed to
SoHu COIl pellllNe 6AulUllS. LIE IGSluelI
has Endorsed it and has instructed the
Secretary of Agriculture to give it all
possible assistance. The prime object of
this enterprise is ''to exploit the apple as
a healthful food product-to educate our
own people as we'll as foreigners to eat
more apples.
At the present time there have been
planted in Oregon, Idaho and Washington
approximately 25, 900, 900 apple trees, and
the growers claim that on the basis of
previous yields these new trees alone, in
short time, will produce ''almost as
many barrels of apples as were grown in
all the remaining portions of the United
States last year" These orchards have
the benefit of unusually stimulating soil,
much of it irrigated. The apples are
large and fair and tempting to the eye,
but they lack the decided flavor and the
keeping quality of the New England ap
pie. There is not an abandoned farm in
this section but offers a fine opening for
the skilled orchardist, and it might not be
a bad idea for many respondent farmer
to take course in the far Northwest in
this industry, where it is carried on as a
separate, and generally profitable bust
ness. Boston Transcript.