FRUIT GROWING. Fruit growing is the art and practice of producing fruits for human consumption. Fruit growing is also highly developed as a profession; followed by many experts, teachers and investigators. In recent years there has been a tendency to develop the scientific aspects of fruit growing, and, al though little progress has been made in the solution of fundamental laws, much knowledge of real value to the professional and practical fruit grower has been accumulated. The term pomology is frequently applied to the knowledge of fruit growing, but the two terms are really synonymous. The fruit grower's con ception of the term fruit is much more re stricted than that of the botanist's. In this country it is generally confined to the product of trees, bushes and woody vines, such as the apple, currant and grape. Important exceptions are the fruits of such herbaceous perennials as the strawberry and pineapple. The products of annual plants, such as watermelons, cantaloups, tomatoes, etc., are classed as vegetables. It is common practice to classify the fruits of North America into four general groups: (1) Orchard fruits, including the temperate zone tree fruits such as the apple, peach, apricot, plum, cherry, etc.; (2) grapes, the only important vine fruit; (3) small fruits, including the raspberry, black berry, currant, gooseberry, blueberry, cranberry and strawberry; and (4) citrus fruits, includ ing the orange, lemon, grapefruit and allied forms. To provide for such fruits as the pine apple, fig, olive and other fruits grown in milder regions of the country, the awkward but comprehensive heading tropical and sub tropical fruits other than citrus, is frequently used.
A survey of the cultivated fruits of North America reveals the fact that native fruits have been of minor importance in developing the great fruit industries of the country. Of the more or less important fruits, the following are of foreign origin : the commercial apples, the pear, peach, apricot, quince, cherry, Euro pean plum, Japanese plum, Japanese. persimmon, European grape, currant, certain gooseberries and most of the strawberries, all of the citrus fruits, pineapple, olive, fig and date. The native fruits have contributed several plums, a few apples, the grapes of eastern North America, the blackberry, dewberry, raspberry, loganberry, many gooseberries, some of the strawberries, cranberry and blueberry. The improvement of fruits, especially tree fruits, by breeding methods is a slow process and rather uncertain in its results. Practically all of the improved native fruits listed above are of chance origin. Many of the foreign introduc
tions have been so altered in the course of time by the influence of environment, selec tion, and, to a small extent, by breeding, as to be now considered distinct American forms. Fruit growing in this country has been de veloped along amateur, local and commercial lines. There are varieties of fruit adapted for the home, the local market and the long dis tance market. The present-day improvement of varieties is largely with the commercial idea in view. Edible quality has been sacrificed to some extent ; whereas appearance and shipping and keeping qualities have improved. Compe tition is becoming keener and the commercial fruit of tho future must be of high quality in order to find a ready sale.
Commerce in fruits and fruit products dur ing the earlyyears of the 19th century was insignificant. It consisted in a small trade in fresh and dried apples, apple cider, apple brandy and vinegar, peach brandy, and in some localities, wine from native grapes. The in creasing demand for cider led to the planting of many seedling apple orchards in the North east, and the culture of orchard and small fruits in general was gradually established in the vicinity of the larger, towns. By the middle of the century the railroads began to penetrate the interior of the country, opening fertile regions adapted to fruit culture and broader commercialpossibilities of fruit rowing came to be more fully recognized. During the period from 1850 to about 1880 many large orchards, vineyards and small fruit plantations were established at long distance from their pros pective markets, and plantings were increased in the vicinity of the large markets. The knowledge of fruit transportation and storage was limited. Nearby fruits frequently glutted the markets during the few days or weeks in which they were harvested and long-distance fruits could not reach these markets when local fruit was scarce. Such was the condition existing about 1890, when mechanical cold storage plants were adapted to storing apples over long periods and the more perishable fruits over temporary market gluts. Success ful refrigerator car systems for conveying fruits long distances were developed about the same time. With the perfection of storage and transportation methods, fruit growing has be come an important and highly specialized branch of North American agriculture. But few sections of the country are without some commercially important fruit industry.