TRANSACTIONS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING. 93 



over-production in place of barrenness. This has been especially 

 the case in regard to the apple crop. In very many places, even 

 where the orchards are moderate in size and few in number, much 

 fruit has gone to waste. Fameuse and other good fall and winter 

 apples bare been freely offered for twenty and twenty-five cents 

 a bushel, with but a moderate demand at that. Some complain 

 that it has been impossible to give it away and that the greater 

 portion of the season's crop has rotted on the ground. Though 

 the production has been so great, the prices have been so very low 

 as to reduce the returns even below those of years where the 

 yield has been moderate and even meager. The remarks were 

 often heard, " when you have fruit it is not worth anything." 

 " There is no profit in an orchard any way ;" " there are ten chances 

 to one that you get any fruit at all, and when you do, it won't 

 bring enough to pay for picking." Yet it is to be hoped that we 

 shall be blessed with such a misfortune frequently, for it is a kind 

 of burden that is easy to bear and which can readily be turned to 

 profit. But is it true that there has been an over production of 

 fruit? Have we raised enough to any where near supply the 

 home demand ? The amount raised has been large, very large, 

 but not near as great as the amount consumed. The season has 

 been a remarkable one for fruit throughout the whole country. 

 Never have the markets of our large cities been so crowded with 

 it the season through. The cash value of the green fruit sold in 

 Chicago alone has been over $10,000,000, and that, too, not in- 

 cluding the foreign, extreme southern or California fruit. It is re- 

 garded as a liberal estimate to setoff one-quarter of this for local 

 consumption, and that at least three-quarters was shipped to the 

 country, and largely to Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. 



Our own state has been a heavy consumer of strawberries and 

 blackberries from Illinois and Michigan, and also of apples from 

 these states, and some from Ohio and New York. With all this 

 mass of fresh fruit there has also been a large trade in dried fruit. 

 The cash value of the sales in Chicago reaches $L, 301.000, and of 

 this $820,000 is for dried apples alone. Why is it that when 

 so much fruit is brought into the state from abroad, our own 

 goes to waste for want of purchasers? There are various reasons. 



