Some Significant Mileposts in Growth and Development in Pomology1

Abstract

Abstract Seventy-five years ago U.S. pomology was caught up in a ferment which marks the ebb and flow of any great agricultural industry. The beginnings of great things to come were in sight, though perhaps unrecognized as such, while the end of other eras was at hand. San Jose scale was being conquered, while peach yellows had destroyed the vast peach industry which bordered the Chesapeake Bay, an industry which made Maryland the leading peach state for a while. The demise of the peach industry was followed shortly by runaway plantings of apples from the mountains of Appalachia westward to Ohio; curiously a similar overexpansion developed in Washington and Oregon as well at that time. South Carolina was just beginning to plant peaches, and it would be 20 years before Michigan would commence peach breeding at South Haven. New Jersey had supported orchard fertilization experiments for 20 years, other Northeastern states for nearly as long. Cultivars were called varieties, and there were great numbers of them in all commercial deciduous fruit orchards. The leading apple cultivar by far was ‘Ben Davis’, but Stark Bros. Nursery had owned Jesse Hiatt's apple for 10 years, and was well under way toward making the 20th century, the ‘Delicious’ century in American apple production. The first high density apple orchard was already 8 years old, this a planting of ‘Wealthy’ trees on seedling rootstocks, spaced 10 × 10 feet, at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, Ontario. But this planting was an idea well ahead of its time, for more than 60 years would pass before the term “high density” would have any meaning in American or Canadian pomology.