The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-11-11
NEW ENGLAND APPLES.

1t has been long time since the
New England newspapers have taken
up any topic with such unanimity
and enthusiasm as that of more eX-
tensive and profitable cultivation of
apple orchards. The recent Chamber
of Commerce meeting at Boston gave
big impetus to the movement and it
promises to be one of the important
subjects for discussion at meetings
of farmers during the winter.
One of the best informed men on
this topic is j H. Hale, of South
Glastonbury, Conn, and he says in
the Boston Sunday Globe:
LAS a source of wealth to New
England the apple has points of val
ne surprising any other tree, plant
or vine congenial to this climate, and
its increasing popularity as a dessert
fruit and the full appreciation of the
apple as a most healthful source of
daily food supply will further greatly
increase its value in coming years;
so that probably within the next 25
years the apple will be the greatest
source of horticultural wealth for
New England, for while it thrives
admirably on plain, valley, hill and
mountain, from the shores of Long
Island and the Atlantic to Grand Isle
in Lake Champlain, it's choicest spec
linen in color, flavor and texture can
be produced on tens of thousands of
acres of rocky hill lands heretofore
of little value for agricultural pur-
poses
When these lands that are now
returning little if anything to their
owners, and are in the tax list at
from SO to $40 per acre, are planted
with our choicest varieties they may
be expected to increase in value far
beyond that of any other agricultural
lands, except possible a little choice
gardening property near to large
towns and cities.
THE fact must never be lost sight
OF that the rocky granite hills of New
England have within their mineral
elements of fertility that which with
little or no care of culture, feeding,
pruning and spraying, have in the
past enabled our farmers to produce
such choice apples as Spy, Greening,
King, Fall Pippin, Fameuse, McIn-
tosh and Gravenstein, to say nothing
of our great commercial Baldwin. in
higher perfection of quality than
anywhere else in America.
Now with the great apple awak-
ening that is taking place, aided by
sicence In feeding, pruning and
spraying, it was proven over and over
again at the recent New England ap-
pie show that for perfection of form,
clearness of skin, and freedom from
spot or blemish, we can equal in style
and beauty the most perfect speci-
men from any other so called favored
apple region of America, where beau
ty of fruit is their strongest claim to
market favor.
New England's orchard lands, now
the cheapest Of any in the United
States, are nearest to the apple ship
ping ports of Boston and Portland,
enabling their products more quickly
and at less expense to reach the mar
kets of Europe than fruit from any
other orchard section of America, and
better than all this the cultured and
refined people of the great northeast
section of the United States, to the
number of more than 30,000,00O, have
higher appreciation of choice fruits
than any other equal number of peo-
pie on the face of the globe They
also have more money per capita to
spend for necessities and luxuries,
and are mostly to be reached by rail
within "a hours at freight cost of
from $50 to $40 per car as against