The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-03-11
FRANK 3. HOWE, EditOr and PubllsAsI
HIGH Prices EoR APPLES

seven dollars a barrel Even in the
smaller communities I'm New England
they are retailing at sixty cents a
peck. The warm fall and open wins
ter and the fact that there was not a
normal crop to begin with are, in
large measure, responsible for the un-
usually high prices. but whatever the
causes the apple just now is giving
the orange a hard race for first place
in the fruit class.
Seven dollars a barrel looks like a
famine price for apples. especially TO
the Vermont farmer who for years has
been in the habit of picking a portion
of his best fruit each season and send
ing the larger half to the cider mill,
but there are orchards in Grand Isle
county from which the select stock
has been selling at this figure for
years.
It is conceded that the islands of
Lake Champlain produce better APP
pies ,Aan can be grown anywhere else
in the state or in the United States
for that matter, because of the pecu-
liar soil and climate conditions, but
there are thousands of acres of land
on the western slopes Of the Green
Mountains on which fine marketable
fruit is grown in limited quantities.
Unusually good baldwin apples are
sold in Bennington every year by
SALISBURY farmers. The fruit to be
sure is not the equal either in size or
appearance of that grown in the
Champlain valley, but with similar
care and attention could be brought
much nearer to its equal in selling
qualities.
Outside of the narrow strip along
the rivers there is not much level
land in Vermont. The farms, even
those in the high valleys, are com
posed of a section of grass growing
land bordering upon or cut by u
stream, and a higher and rougher area
used for pasturage. Pasture and hay
are the two problems to be considered
in dairying country and naturally the
greater consideration is given the for
mer. Experience has demonstrated,
however, that the higher land is bet
ter adapted to apple trees and there
are acres and acres of 1t that are to-
day producing a little native grass,
wild raspberry bushes and ferns.
This same waste land will grow APP
pies, for half wild trees Of the old ma
tive stock selfgrown from seedlings
are found in every section.
The most satisfactory results in
fruit growing are obtained from fol
lowing the business on small scale.
On the Pacific coast there are more
ten acre orange, lemon and English
walnue ranches" than there are
plots of larger area devoted to this
line of business Even in the high
valleys of southern California men
are making a business of growing APP
pies for market today and the fruit
in flavor, appearance and keeping
qualities cannot be compared to the
greetings, baldwins and macintosh
reds raised in Vermont.
If some Vermont farmer fifteen
years ago had fenced in ten acres OF
his pasture land and begun planting
the plot to some of the standard win
ter apple trees, giving to the orchard
the same care andattention received by
his meadow land he would today have
source of income that would make
him the envy of the whole township.
And il the beginning is made now
there are many reasons to believe
that the results will be even more sat
lsfactory fifteen years hence.
Some of the far-seeing men are be,
ginning to worry over what is going
to happen to this country during the
coming fifty years. The population
is increasing so rapidly that future
generations, the prophets tell us, are
not going to have enough to eat. One
thing certainly is becoming apparent
and that Is the broadening opportun-
ity in every field of agriculture. 1t
is plain that the men of the future
who are going to obtain the most sat
isfactory results out of life are not
those who will seek to extract an ex-
ira profit through the handling and
the manipulation of what is produced
That class is already too large even
now. The actual producer, the man
who stands first between mother earth
and the necessities of life, must nat
urally as the demand increases rear
an increasing reward. Vermont is on
lily a day distant, by fast freight, from
the biggest market in the country
The apple grower of the northern
Pacific states is a month and six
weeks away. Somebody is neglectine
his opportunities and judging from
the glowing reports sent out from the
big apple fair recently held al
Spokane in the state of Washington
the charge cannot be laid to the fel
low on the other side of the continent
The Newport Express and Standard
in its last weeks issue used column
I'm lambasting the supreme court be