Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-12-18
Eurtttttg Gtrat

Mention the other evening OF the
extent to which people in this state
have been investing in commercial
orchards led to the discovery to-day
in q. prosaic looking state pamphlet
of the fact that Dauphin county.
which is better known as a center of
government mining, steel making
and railroad activity than anything
else has no less than thirteen COM
mercial peach orchards and eleven
devoted to the raising of apples.
And the interesting part about it is
that while there are about $500 2
bearing apple trees in these ORCH .
ards there are almost 5000 more
coming along. Dauphin county has
thirteen peach orchards devoted ito I
the commercial side of fruit raising
with almost 10000 bearing trees.
with over 5000 not yet bearing.
These orchards are scattered all over
the county, the largest being that
of DR.. j. w. Snyder, near this city,
who has 1000 peach trees. Cum
berland county has over seventy or
chprds of various kinds, the biggest
ones being the Fleitz and Sproul
farms. in which the new Governor
is interested, which have over 20,-
600 peach trees and about 5000
apple trees coming in. DIR. III. A.
Surface, of near Bowmansdale, and
ID. w. Allison, Of near Shippensburg,
have second honors. The Fleitz and
Sproul interests have big orchards
near Benton in Columbia county and
1,0O0-tree pear orchards in Wyom-
ing and Cumberland counties, too.
Perry county has seven apple and
seven peach orchards ranging from
500 to 1000 trees, while Franklin,
Adams, Fulton and other counties
have big orchards. Indeed, the Low
er Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys
are notable for the tremendous ex-
pansion of the fruit tree business.
Fully third of the trees planted are
not yet bearing.
The state pamphlet gives in detail
the various orchards, showing some
| figures which are startling when con-
sidered. 1t says: I'm addition to
the 1,444 orchards reporting on
apple and peach trees, there were "A
orchards bearing pears reporting
43, ,415 trees. The largest pear or
chard Is in Carbon county and con-
tains 2,100 trees. There were so
orchards devoted to plum and prune
culture and total of 49,0l5 trees.
The largest orchards of this kind
were located in Erie and Butler coun-
ties and each contained 5000 trees.
The cherry interests with 800 or
more trees were represented by 100
| orchardists with a total of 5S,565
trees. The largest cherry orchard
is in Adams county with other large
ones in Erie county. From the SUR
Evey there appears to be but one
orchardist giving special attention to
crabapples and he is located in
Pike county with 1000 trees. There
are nine ounce orchards of 900 or
more trees with a total of 5,615 trees
with the largest in Adams and
Franklin counties. The bulletin also
contains the long list of vineyards
and shows eleven large growers or
currants with one patch in Pike
county containing 10000 bushes. The
vineyards run as high as $4,000
vines"
|, Money is rolling into the State
Highway Department for automo-
bile licenses at a rate never known
in the Capitol since the automobile
license system was established moro
than ten years ago. The certined
checks, money orders and BANK
notes are clogging the mail OF the
automobile division and money IS
LheinR sent. to the State Treasury. at
| the rate OF $SS, ,090;fo $40, 000sa day
The belief is that the revenue from
automobiles in advance of. the new
wear will run considerably over a
million and break the record. The
automobile division is now work
ing night and day in three shifts. of
eight hours each and it is expected
that shipments will be at a greater
rate than usual. In two weeks the
shipments have gone ahead of the
4 total of 25,200 licenses issued dur
ing the whole of 1908. For 1903 the
state issued 34,351 licenses, which
was considered a very creditable
record.
Military units at the State Normal
schools are being disbanded, accord
ing to word received at state educa-
tionaI offices here. In some or the
schools officers training courses Will
he considered. The normal schools
had military training the first time
this year., which, was a shock 70
MANY. educators, while more atten-
ton was also given to foreign IAN n
guages. rH #vJ
Water and gas rate complaints Will
be heard by public service commits
sioners to Philadelphia and Pitts
hurgh tomorrow. There Will be
com mparatively few hearings sched-
lied for next week because OF the
holiday as even public officials want
time to trim Christmas trees.
! "Chiefy" Gilner is about to begin
: his annual round of the public SER
vice offices.