Kentucky Fruit Prospects
A Kenton County Farmer Reviews the Field
Peaches Only a Failure
Canton Station, Kentucky Central Railroad, May 8. The time has come when we may safely estimate the probabilities of the fruit crop for the year.
The Licking Valley has for almost half a century been one of the chief sources of supply of the Cincinnati market for small fruits, of which this station is the central shipping freight depot. I will say at once that the prospect for an abundant yield of all of the fruits grown in this latitude - except the peach, which is here almost a total failure - has never been excelled. Gen. John W. Finnell is the largest fruit grower of this district, and I presume of Kenton County. He has now in full bearing age from 15,000 to 20,000 trees, made up of apples, pears, plums, quinces and cherries. He has more apple trees than any of the other larger fruits. He has forty acres devoted to the cultivation of the strawberry, and twenty-five of the raspberry and blackberry, all of the most approved varieties. He has also about twenty acres of vineyards, and he reports all in the most promising condition.
Mr. Alfred Adams has twelve acres well set and in full bloom, with all the finest varieties of the strawberry.
Mr. James Reddick has a hill farm, with a fine young apple orchard in full bloom, and so, too, of his immediate neighbor, Mr. C. A. Caldwell.
Dr. Wm. Krelkeld has apples, pears, quinces, and grapes all promising well.
Mr. James Ryland has fifty acres devoted to the cultivation of the strawberry, the raspberry, and the blackberry. He is an amateur, and most careful cultivator, and tolerates only the finest varieties of fruit.
My own little orchard, containing some 400 trees of well-selected fruit, is now in most profuse bloom.
The Culbertson family, with all its offshoots and connections, are earnest cultivators of the small fruits. Who can write of them without calling memories of the past. The elder and progenitor of the family was the contemporary of Nick Longworth, and equally ardent as he was in the cultivation of the strawberry.
As pioneers in this line in the Licking Valley, they did much to cultivate and stimulate a fondness for fruit culture, and to that extent they may be justly regarded as public benefactors. If no "nipping frosts" shall interpose to "blast" all of our hopes, this portion of Kenton County will do its full share in ministering to the pleasures and comforts of the citizens of your goodly city during the coming summer. Farmers are generally well up with their spring work. Corn is not yet all in, but well advanced. The ground broke up mellow and nicely, and the farming season promises now to be a prosperous one. - B. F. Stevenson
from the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May 10, 1876