The Morning Herald from Hagerstown, Maryland • Page 93

HAGERSTOWN, MX. HERALD (80 MAO. (125 Ywxci) AHHIVEBSARY EDITION 1359 I 10 L.ui I I lilt, I I I I Industry Hare Dates SCOW Orchards IS ffaneoae At Turn 01 Oatey? Growing Of Superior Fruit Mm Efdtod Info HigMy Tedmicol Business. of Washington County," large plantings of apples were IB Mention? John'msdc. In November of that year JA, Mcoclemus, Jlitchell Stover S.

Dillon, planted 30 acres find nursery near Greencastlejon Tonoloway Ridge west of "William D. Hughes. Emory The following spring the i Fry plaster! 50,000 peach trees on a Company, jtfae shoulder of Elk a Ridge near I whose president was S. P. Cohill, JKeedysville.

apples on the same ridge. su County, with 217,000 trees and 146,000 peach trees, Is the ingest producer of fruit in the Bttte of Maryland and one of the 100 leading counties in the was ant ed is 1883. ltS3 Towscn Orchard Largest the first peach orchard of his father, Jacob Talley Towsos, which AT all fruits In th ox au iruus. Eeserre District only three other counties share this honor: Spartansburg; South Carolina, Frederick, Virginia I I I i II -II Hill. Jefferson, West have tees papery -on Washington si the county the first Street had every variety of grapes 5 jgiossed fee Eifige.

ifcsowa in the latitude in 1870. were planted on (Grapes had been planted in the eysry farm, bttf it wasn't! early by the German settlers sStfissdi later that the Boonsboro area where there fwsre 18 as early as la fee Eastern In seighboriag Berkeley County, West Virginia, the Miller family epferated a nursery before the Civil asibled the War. Uiiable to sell their products' Mtrylaad aud te Tidewater Cosa- produced large crops of apples pewes. Cheap and easy Clarence of M. Hagerstow growers their products la after the outbreak of hostilities, Btliimore, Washlngtffitt and PMa-jthey set out berries, peaches, delphli.

plums aisd apples. As production hasf, is "History of and local markets were publMed in I82, the first peaches were Ind Francis M. Darby of Baltimore, who had bought the Crampton Farm at Crampton's Ga. and planted about 50 acres of peaches. pie peaches were loaded on the when the orchards first rea -profitable bear- 5 es 'J re 5t2 her early gr wers "I throughout the county.

The war iae Smithsburg area. J. Kudolph Brown Browns- vilte, who is now 88 years old, probably planted the first peach orchard in the lower end of the county. After this orchard of 30 acres went out Mr. Brown became associated with two attorneys, doe? net ssestksa apples or peaches shipped to Baltimore by raS mat young trees 1870's.

About the same frails, as pears, Sillier 'sold -his gmwa is the cosaty at apple crop to a New York buyer Manor fey Eeiahard's Hursery for $8000; cash. abest 184S. Sooa orchards were being plant- He does staff that the cousJy in adjacent areas. The first in far SRaasr years after the War esjoyed national teputatioa for grapes JIM! that Dr. Harvey's 1 area, about 1880.

Williams, in his Washington County wtee along Mountain in the Smitfesbarg TT Henry Miller, Aaron Newcomer, i and the Loose ana Jacques aim- These plantings were extensive for ten or fifteen years, during which period large orchard companies as well as many individuals planted in the Hancock area and I years, came ing, induced further extensive plantings in the years 1919 to 1921, many of them oa marginal sites. In -1919 the American Fruit Growers, a Pittsburgh company in which the Mellon family had financial interests, bought the Tonolo- way Orchard for 1300,000. The Scott and Park Head Orchards, east of Hancock, were two more of the orchards which they purchased "in Maryland, Virginia, to Baltimore, Washington, New York, Cincinnati and other large cities. The peaeh Industry soon reached By 1S25 over 5000 acres had been planted in the Hancock area. The American Fruit Growers had declined almost! 1800 acres.

Millstone Orchard rapicuy-because of the spread of a peaeh disease, the towe. Widmejer and San Jose Scale. The introduc-! 1 111 Whitl a a tida of spraying, that is the use of peaches the control! began about 1900, but of it did sot revive the industry immediately. It was about 1900 that the first Shown above are three key figures in Sie story of the fruitJmdnstry la. Western Maryland.

Seen In the comparing specimens of two types of prior to making a microscopic examination, Is Br, CastUlo Graham, field entomologist tA the Hancock Fruit Laboratory, a University of Maryland field station. At the left, fttandtng, is Ms assistant, Boyd Ccrchran; at the right, seated, is Charles Duhbar, a member of the Maryland's horticulture depart- meat, also assigned' to the field station. The three experts in their fields offer the technical advice and aid to fruit growers that has been largely responsible for the steady ascendancy of Western Maryland as a major producer of bigh grade apples and THE PLANTERS MUTUAL Over 100 Years fowotif COMPANY of WASHINGTON COUNTY MARYLAND 1846 Five score and seven years ago In Maryland, six prominent citizens were issued a charter by the Legislature Annapolis and on the 19th of March of that year, Messrs Joseph Gabby, Jacob E. Bell, Christian Strife, David M. Good, Joseph Leiter and George L.

ZeigSer were designated Directors Mr. Good as first President. That was the birth of Ti PUNTERS iMSHANCE OF WASHINGTON COUNTY Continuously through the years the company has enjoyed the confidence of the people of Washington County until today with its valuable Home Office building and exceptionally strong financial standing we are very fWoud to be carrying on side by side with the Herald-Mail Company in our century of service to our particular community. Our very best to the Herald-Maii Company on their One Hundred and Twenty- i Stibert, President--Ellsworth R. Roulette Vice Pres- H.

Tenney SecretaJy-Treasurer. Street Phone 67 chard Company; the Corona Orchard Company; J. A. Ccjiill; Roy M. Daniels; Green Lane Orchard and the Potomac Valley Orchards had ten to thirty-five thousand trees each.

Thomas B. Sweeney, John W. Whorton, the Masons, S. H. Karr, Charles H.

Locher, the Tri-State Orchard, Samuel Katzman, the Round Top Orchard of R. L. Henderson, the Sunshine Hill Orchard of S. R. Cohill, Barbara E.

Stigers and the Peaceful Valley Orchard had over a thousand trees In a short history of Hancock published in 1925 other orchard owners, all who shipped cars of fruit, were Lindsay Frame, Dr. Charles T. Pyies, J. E. Feltner, William C.

Deneen, Hayes Exline, Henry P. Bridges, the Ridgefield Orchard Company, R. J. McCan- dish, M. Norris, Lon Resley, George J.

M. Newcomer, C. C. James, the Grove Orchard, Ernest Trumpower, the Rosemont Orchard Company, Mason and Richards, Roland Bowers and James F. Smith.

Hard Hit in '30s The depression years of the Twig. The old regular itrain York Imperial, a. aa a Delicious, Rome Beauty, and Jonathan are fading rapidly. In their place are 1 Shown above are a few oi the better known fruit growers in the Hancock and Smithsburg areas, whose separate holdings add up to a majority of Maryland's most productive apple and peach orchards. Seated at the left, holding a branch from one of his apple trees, is R.

S. Dillon, who pioneered the fruit industry in the western part of Washington County by an initial planting of 30 acres in apples, on Tonoioway Ridge, in 1900. Standing behind him, at the left, is his son, R. Samuel Dillon, one of the most successful of the new generation of "scientific" orchardists in this state. Other well-knGrwn fruit growers in Washington County's "apple and peach basket" are, left to right (standing), Stanley Fulton and D.

Eldred Sinehart; (seated, at right), John P. with 100 or more trees today include: Ira G. Bowman, L. H. Cronise, E.

Faulders, Roger Flook, J. H. House, O. J. materials have been introduced to assist in the control of codling moth, aphids, red mites and two spotted mites, curculio, leaf roller, nt'ia'n'f-al ynnfli During the depression years few young trees were planted.

Many growers believed that their cultivated orchards would last as long 1930's plus the loss of a large part of the area's foreign markets in England and on the continent rendered a heavy blow to the fruit industry of the county. Hundreds of acres were ahandoned. In 25 years the 47 growers mentioned ahove from the Hancock area were reduced to 20 growers: Stanley M. Fulton, the J. A.

Cohill Estate, Baldwin Locher. the Elberta Fruit Farms, John Munson, Charles Munson, Russell Dyer, Ross Dyer, the Billon Orchards, Charles Robey, the Brooks Brothers, Marshall and Wilson Riley Daniels, Edward W. Hepburn, John Page Caspar, Dr. L. L.

Shaffer, Mrs. Walter E. Wilson, Funk, Welty Leatherman and R. S. Dillon, Jr.

Growers in the Smithsburg area with 100 or more trees today include: William Allenberg, Harold S. Barr, Daniel G. Bayer, Walter D. Bromley, Austin Bikie, Robert Clopper, S. Clopper, i Gardenhour, Richard E.

Gaver, William J. Harvey Hess, Stanley E. Hauver, E. W. H.

Jordan, Frank W. Martz, Weaver Moser, Amos E. Reeder, Alvey W. Reid, Richard Renner, John L. Stottlemyer, William R.

Weaver, J. Luther Itnyre, Harry Keadle, Paul Keefauver and Roy G. Reeder. Growers in the Hagerstown area with 100 or more trees today include: Joseph E. Byers, Clarence M.

Cook, George J. iSeffer Funk, Preston M. Horst, George B. Hockman, Jacob E. Horst, Hiland Orchards, Phares S.

Horst, Ira E. Hege, Maurice Martin, Menno Martin, John N. Newcomer, James M. Resh, Francis L. Stockslager, Herman L.

Stockslager, Ralph M. Stotler, Dr. Robert C. Snavely, Walter R. Thomas, Albert Zahn, John D.

and Samuel Hoffman. Growers in the Clear Spring area with 100 or more trees today include: Leo Cohill, Paul E. Deeds, C. C. James, Amos Rowland, Olive Smith.

Tenney, Fred L. Glaize and S. A. Heisey. Growers in the southern end of the county with 100 or more trees today include: Cyras Smith, James W.

Smith and Robert S. Thornburg. Washington County's fruit tree population continues to decline. Apples have been reduced from 239,098 trees (out of 461,173 in the State) in 1948 to the 217,000 which in 1953. Peaches in the same five years have declined from 162,196 trees (out of 421,575 in the State) in 1948 to the 145,000 which 60 growers have in 1953.

E. Cowdrick, Simon F. Fiery, Raymond The small farm orchard has almost completely disappeared. Most of the 10, 25 and even 50 acre orchards have gone out of existence. Now Technical Business In the last 50 years, since the of insects infesting apples and peaches.

The growers of Washington County have been able to produce apples, which in addition to their high, natural flavor, have enjoyed the excellent appearance and finish of irrigated fruit from the Northwest. as the old farm orchards which were not fertilized and otherwise forced into profitable production. In the late thirties the realization that the old orchards, planted at, the turn of the century, were fast declining, induced the planting of many young trees. The war years interrupted this program, but it ha es un a imsmber became so extensive after'the war of the Horticultural Department of I Sat today a most 60 per cent of CeS the University of Maryland, has the 217000Tee? fee couniviP ro ctlon 1T methods and also been assigned to the local hav been planted Red Belieiotts, Red Romes Beauty, and Red Jonathan. Golden Delicious has also been planted heavily.

Smaller plantings have been made of Lodi, a improved Transparent strain, WSUanss Early Bed, Summer Rambc and Lowry. Oialy a few Grimes Golden, Winesap, Me- Intosh and Noirth Western Greening are being planted. In peaches many the old varieties such as English Cling, Smock, Reeves Favorite, Champion, Mt. Rosa, Steven Rare Ripe, Sharers Choices, Hiley, Slappey and Billou have completely disappeared. Fast going out are Belle of Georgia, J.

H. Hale, Golden Jubilee and Brackett The old favorite, Eiberta, Is still the leading peach, but newer and earlier ripening varieties are being planted. Early Bed Free, Bed Haven, Triogem, Sun High, Half Haven, Sullivaa Elberta, Jersey- land and others are good peach varieties introduced during the last few years which will serve to jengthen the harvest season. Soon Washington Coctety will be harvesting peaches is large quantities from early July to the middle of September. will be the days when a large proportion of the crop was harvested late in August and" early September.

Markets will not be as; easily glutted and labor requirements will be levelled off. The apple asid peach growers of the county will he subject to weather conditions, such as frost, hail and drouth. Many low frosty sites have, been abandoned while such lale blooming, cold resistant varieties such as Yorking, Red Rome atid Golden Delicious have been planted in other low areas. The matter of cross pollen- izalion is beiu.g given more consideration. Irrigation is being used more widely each year to insure favorable moisture conditions.

Some orchards have been planted, on the contour while other soil conservation measures have been widely adopted. It is questionable if Washington County will grow as many apples and peaches in the foreseeable future as in the early 1930's, but better cultural! practices, intensive new valuable to the industry, especially in the field of cover crops. Mr. Mark Miller, our able County Agent, has a wide experi- station since it "was opened bT! per fc progressive grow- 10 years ago. He has been 1920 wm have beeS Amoved removea to the technical work being the next several years.

carried on tliroughout the world The variety has been and will be quick to adapt them- ence in the production of fruit. He XuJKU wJ is at the hprKanrf rsll nf fmit' Ducliess GaB0 stark Ben Davis, i at, me DCCK ana Call 01 mill TM i. drastically changed. Almost- out selves to tLose practices and of the picture are Transparent, growers throughout the year. Dr.

L. 0. Weaver, professor of botany and pathologist at the university, spends considerable time in the county during the early spring and summer. He assists growers in their never ending fight against scab, sooty blotch, black rot, brown rot, bitter pit, cankers and other diseases. These expensive spray programs and intensive production methods have greatly "increased! the costs of production and equipment for spraying, packing, harvesting and refrigeration.

Almost revolutionary in its effect has been the introduction of red sport varieties of apples. As these trees come into production it will further greatly assist growers of the county to produce fruit with high finish and color. Gravenstein, a 1 1 Smoke- methods which should insured continued growth in the value of the county's apple and peach crops house, Winter Banana and Black! per acre and tree. Albert Zahn 83 West Washington Street, Hagersiown, McL John W. Hoffman, Associate Real Estate Since 1937 We take great pride in being a part of the growth of Hagerstown, having foeen in.

the Eeal Estate Business for over 16 Years. Ingram, Margaret Jacques, Lance- advent of spraying, the produe- lot Jacques, Max F. Kretsinger, i tion of apples and peaches has Frank N. Kretzinger, become a highly technical busi- Leather, John A. Martin, Luther ness.

Codjjng moth almost put the Newcomer, Daniel Ott, Hoy New-1 apple grower out of business in man, Samuel Naylor, D. Eldred Sinehart, Archie Einehart, John the late 1930's and 1940's. The growers asked the State through Rinehart, Shockey Brothers, Wai-j the University of Maryland for ter V. Spessard, A. L.

Towson, W. Winters, B. 2eeher, jArdinger and Downs, Blossom I Ridge Farm, E. Seth Lewis, Herman Stouffer, Denton Jacques, Frank N. Miller, Dr.

W. JH. Wishard. Richard Welty and 'Sam Lane. Growers In the Boonsboro area additional technical assistance and research in Washington County.

The State responded by establishing the University of Maryland Field Station at Hancock. Dr. Castillo Graham, field entomologist, assigned here. Through the years he has been of invaluable aid. Dozens of new spray Now In Its 103rd Year EXTENDS CONGRATULATIONS TO ITS NEIGHBOR THE HERALD-MAIL ON ITS 125th.

ANNIVERSARY A. FRED ZIEGLER Editor and Publisher Herald-Mail Newspapers "Serving You Since 1925" Delpheys 237 E. Franklin St. Hagerstown, Md..