The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-09-30

peculiar charm OF their own largely
because of their spicy flavor AL
though barred from the tables OF
gentle folk and the marts of trade
they were sought by fully as inter-
esting IL less exacting consumers
The blanketed reds used them as
staples Of diet and the pioneers OF
the backwoods and frontersmcn often
stepped off the trails to obtain a
store. The settlers of more peaceful
days found them pleasant surprise
in zone not prolific of fruits, and
bear, raccopn and porcupine also
knew them as an excellent prepara-
alton for the long sleep of winter.
When the yoeman returned from
the wars to resume the cultivation
of the soil, many farmers set them
selves to demonstrating the apple
and in this entered the process of
selection and rejection as practiced
by the foremost pomologists and bot
anists of the present day. Trees were
cleared OF the underbrush and pruned
and sections were developed and
pruned in turn, until after much pa
tient toll, as long in duration as the
period of retrogression had been, the
wild fruit once again became the
apple of civilization and with this
came its development as CONNER
cial product, which is destined so
far as the northwestern states and
provinces are concerned, to rank
with the wheat industry in a very
few years.
Mr.. Rice shows in his compilation
of data bearing on the growing
of commercial apples, that the in
dustry has not kept pace with the
increase in population in the United
States and Canada, frlm the fact
that the entire crop this year, es-
timated at 2S,000.0 900 barrels. Is
many barrels less than the produc-
ton in 1895, when growers in the
United States harvested 67,07O, 900.
Twenty-seven million barrels of ap.
pies were harvested in the United
States last year.
The explanation of this condition
lies scattered over the broad acres
in the New England. eastern and
middlewestern states, where apple
orchards, never regarded as serious
features of the farm, have fallen
easy prey to neglect and resultant
pests. In many instances the trees
have been felled to supply manufac-
turers with materials, while in other
localities entire orchards have been
chopped out to afford room for the
more profitable crops.
As there is no substitute for the
apple this woud mean notheing less
than a famine were it not for the
orchards in the west, where an i'm
mense territory has been dedicated
to fruit production, and with the
millions of trees planted annually
will make this the orchard country
of the world.
."The lands already planted in
Washington. Idaho, oregon, Montana
and the provinces of British Column
bia should produce crop OF apples
in 1915 equal to the production OF
the United States in 1896" said Mr.
Rice in discussing the outlook
"and at that there will never be an
overproduction. From that time on
with orchards i'm other western and
southwestern states, including Califor-
MIA Colorado. Texas, Nevada, Utah,
Arizona, New Mexico. Wyoming and
the Dakotas, there should be a def
mite increase every season, until the
apple becomes the every day fruit
and food of the people, instead of a
luxury. as 1t appears to be today In
high prices
"The question of how the demands
of the people for fruit can be met
will have a prominent place at the
informal discussion in Spokane next
November. l believe this is a timely
subject for inquiry and that 1t ranks
in importance With the facts pre-
sented recently regarding our forests
and iron ore deposits"