The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-08
FRUIT GROWING
 IN CONNECTICUT
People of Connecticut Just Beginning to Realize Its Possibilities.

In his talk before the State Board of Trade in New Haven recently, J. H. Hale of Glastonbury said:
 Your president asked me to come here and talk little about the horti- cultural possibilities of Connecticut. l was born in Connecticut and have dug
 my living out of its soil all my life, and I am interested in talking to fel- | lows here from town. village and city. l about that which interests you l | was particularly glad to be invited by this State Board of Trade to talk to you on the fruit question, because last week in Boston there was held the greatest apple show that was ever held east of the Mississippi river. and dur | ing that weeks session the Boston Chamber of Commerce invited us countrymen who were there to sit down and dine with them, and then to talk over the possibilities Of New Eng land horticulture.
 The farmers and the people of Con-
 necticut are just beginning to wake up to the possibilities of this old State
 in that direction. Perhaps I ought not to say the farmers are. because they are not the only ones that are waking up.
 Our granite hills have within them clements of plant food that give frmness of texture that give color, and give quality to our fruit that can- not be approached anywhere in Amer ica and I do not believe anywhere on the globe. Take any standard fruit that can be grown in this State at all. and we can grow 1t to a higher state of perfection on the hills of New Eng land than 1t can be grown anywhere else in America .
 or course, the first thing is the soil. and the climatic conditions and then good markets to sell the products in- Those are all the things to be con- sidered The cash returns are much greater to those growers who have those clements in their favor and that is exactly what. we have got right here in this little State of Connecticut, ana on these New England hills.
 Once in a while we hear Of wonder full returns from an orange grove Tn Florida or from raising canteioupes in the middle west, or from some or the apple crops raised in the far west, but I want to tell you fellows that the farms of Connecticut can do up any other section of America when It comes to producing fruit to its highest state of perfection. As it is today. we have some fruit growers who are pro ducing fruit and are getting returns of from four to six or seven hundred dollars per acre.
 We have got some grape vineyaros right within a short distance of New Haven that produce more than the most favored region of central New
 
 cases where they have produced more than a ton Some of these sturdy Italians who have come in here pro duce grapes which actually show us greenhorn Yankees that We do not know so blamed much as we thought we did. I have seen within week an Italian who has made 46O gallons of pure grape juice-wine 1t will De bye-and-bye-and they don't put in lot of water to soak it all up- Four hundred and sixty gallons of it. Just think of 1t. I know of others who have sold as high as seven tons at $3o ton. And it is on land that whie ago a Yankee would have been asham- ed of himself to have paid anywhere from five to eight dollars an acre for He would have said. ''It is not worth it." And yet that Is an, example or what some of those people are doing right there on that sort of land
 Now about peaches in Connecticut: They used to say that 1t was impos- sible to grow peaches commercialy Tn Connecticut but a few of us kept at more than a million baskets of peaches a year and the land is giving a re- turn of anywhere from S4O0 to sl.Vo0 per acre Land set out to good grade of peaches will produce from s2OO to s6OO an acre.
 I was told recently of four Graves stein apple trees. right here in New Haven county that within the last two months The crop on those trees was sold for S54 a tree. Think what that means. Of course those trees were taken care of. They were sprayed They were pruned- And they were sprayed not once, but several times. They man. ufactured apples. That is all. The owner made it a business to take care of those trees so as to produce the highest results. just as you fellows take care of your business to get the 1tQ those apples and you people paid the money. You were glad to do it.. That is right. in the State of Connecticut
 Another great factor in the develop ment of fruit growing in New Eng land or Connecticut Is the low price of our land. Do you know that there is no place in America where there is to be found land for sale at such low prices as right here in Connecti- cut? Lands out on the prairies of the far west and the central west, suit able for horticultural purposes. are selling for two, three. four and i've times as much as they are here.
 We have got apple lands in New England that can beat that land in the west all hollow, which can be bought for very small price Those apples which you have admired were grown on land that cost less than S5O an acre, and some of you are paying S5e0 and more for land in the far west that is not half so good Land is cheap here In Connecticut we can buy it from S10 to $40 an acre, and I want to tell you one thing. my friends. that we have got land here within p miles of New Haven. which IS better for fruit growing than any acre in the great Hood river valley in Oregon. where land is selling for $500 an acre and you people are sending your money out there. and investing it, and sending your boy out there, too. when you can get it right here in Connecticut for a. tenth of what you have to pay for it there, and where ter conditions in every way
 I will bet a dollar that there are half dozen young fellows up here at Yale who, when they get through. are going out to Oregon to grow apples, because they have not been told what the opportunities are right here in Con- necticut If your board of trade is wide awake you can keep those boys at home If you 6o not, it is your own fault. Land Is cheaper here. unques-