The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-04-05
GROWING FRUIT
 IN CONNECTICUT
Our Apples Leave All Others
 Out of Sight

AL the massachusetts ftOrllC ulluId al Society's meeting in Boston last week J. H. Hale, the fruit grower of Glas- tonbury spoke on the "Horticultural Awakening of New England and his interesting s-<sdress was as follows:
 The recoru of this the oldest hor- ticultural society in America and of the Massachusetts Historical Society, shows a New England interest in hor- ticulture from our earliest settlement, particularly orchard and vineyard products as source of food and drink supply for the family. Later and wiser generations have mostly done away with the drink, but fruits as food both for family and market are yearly becoming more and more very important factor in our ag- ricultural and commercial life. The necessities of New England's small farming with only the help of the man" for a portion of the year, re- sulting only in small cash crops in variety as could be sold in local mar kets prevented specialization in or charding on any extended scale.
 In recent years, however. fruits pro- duced at a distance, so far away that they must be we'll grown and packed have been coming into New England in such quantities and of such beauti- full appearance as to greatly stimulate consumption and cause our most thoughtful horticulturists to take se- rious notice and many to ask the rea- son why with the same care and at- tention New England orchardists could not produce fruit equally good in appearance and Of far better qual- ity
 And with the agricultural experi- ment stations and colleges, state and local horticultural and pomoiogical so- cieties. farm institutes and grangeS almost with one accord Investigating, experimenting and taking modern methods of orchard management as taught by scientists and practiced by the few pioneer orchardists in each of the six New England states there has at last come an awakening to a full realization of the wonderful or chard possibilities so long neglected while less favored sections far away have been filling our markets with beautiful but inferior fruits. Con- necticut with more than 100000 peach trees in orchards now produces a greater annual output than Della ware while Rhode Island, Massachu- sets and New Hampshire, stimulated by Connecticut's success, have now more than 300,000 trees in orchards and from the middle of August well into October more peaches are pro- duced in New England than her mar kets can consume, and if present con- templated plantings are continued we will soon be hunting the markets in sharp competition with the South and West. The taking up of many Of our small and semi-idle farms by new corners from the north of Italy, who just as quickly as they get settled on the land plant @ vineyard, are bring ing about some remarkable results Tn grape production, especially in Mas sachusetts, Rhode Island and Connec- ticut where five to eight tons or grapes per acre are annually being taken from lands considered almost worthless before. This so clearly indicates the great commercial possl- bilities of grape culture in New Eng land as to lead to the belief that be- fore many years grapes now coming from other states will largely be re- placed by those in higher quality or our own growing, for there is no ques- ton but that fruits, grown on the rocky hill lands of New England arc richer in quality than smaller varfe- ties grown elsewhere. Those who, not so many years ago sold out their New England farms at from SEQ to $50 per acre and because of alluring advertisements went to remote sec- tions of the country and paid higher prices for land to grow fruit upon are waking up to the fact that the stay at-homes' and the incoming farmers who had farms in New England lands are with the aid of modern horticul- tural science and practice reaping far greater cash rewards from the cheap lands of New England than are those on the high-priced lands so far away The cost of transportation alone takes from one-third to one-half of the gross sales. It costs me $415 for freight and packages to place a car of my Georgia peaches in the New England markets, while the same o,, of hn placed here for $75, making sum of $340 per car in favor of New Eng land and the uniflcations of our rail roads through the practical consolida- tion of the N T., N. H. & H., ana the B. & M, means much. to us in the way of better and quicker distribu- ton.
 The Connecticut Pomological socie- ty starting twenty years ago with seventeen members now has nearly TOO and its summer field meetings, where round tree, plant and vine its members and visiting horticu1turists discuss practical fruit questions, are perhaps the one greatest factor in our awakening followed up by associa- tiOns of kindred nature in the other states and supplemented by farm in stitutes and grange meeting to the extent of several thousand each year, all eliminating in that great New England fruit show held in October, 1909. So successful was it that one of far greater magnitude is likely to be held this coming fall and is at tracting the attention of the whole country.
 This horticultural awakening has found it's greatest opportunity in the apple, the best yet most neglected of all our fruits that in spite of more than 250 years growing in sod with out feed or culture and only an oc- casional butchery for pruning has been giving to New England in req sonable abundance fruits of inferior appearance yet so much superior in flavor and keeping qualities to apples from any other section of the country as to clearly indicate New England as the home of the apple of quality. Beautiful apples from the far West superbly graded and packed coming to our markets in recent years, filling the show windows of our fruit stores so that they and the fruit stand dis plays have taken on touch of color never dreamed of until king apple came to it's own have crowded all else into the background.
 This tempting of consum CTS through their eyes has stimulated the apple market more in the past ten years than in the whole century pre- ceding and finally awakened the own CTS of thousands of New England's $ old apple trees so that culture and