FORTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 67 



COMMERCIAL OKCUIAKDING IN THE MIDDLE WEST. 



SENATOR H. 1\I. DUN LAP, SAVOY. ILL. 



Apple growing in the middle west has been brought into unusual 

 prominence during this year of 1915. With light crops in the east and 

 northwest the attention of apple buyers has been called to this section 

 as never before. Greenings, Spies, Baldwins, Kings, have retired to 

 back seats and Jonathan, Grimes, Rome Beauty, Gano and Ben Davis 

 have been conspicuous in the bald-headed row down in front. The un- 

 usual thing about it is that so many buyers have been brought to ack- 

 nowledge the fact that there are apple growing sections outside of the 

 Baldwin and Greening groups of states. The high prices asked by 

 grocers in the latter sections and rumor of the big Johathan crop in 

 the states of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, lured them from their 

 easy chairs in the lobby of the Whitecomb, at Rochester, and they took 

 an early train into this to them untried section. 



This illustrates the value of advertising. The middle west has done 

 but little of this and the eastern section of the country has held the 

 stage largely by priority of age. The west has been populated by people 

 from the east and they brought with them their likes and dislikes. The 

 early orchards of Illinois w^ere largely planted to Spitzenbergs, Spies, 

 Greenings, Baldwins, etc. Most, if not all, were unadapted to this 

 newer section and these early orchards have passed away to be sup- 

 planted by a new set of varieties largely unknown but better adapted 

 to the climate and soil. Varieties that had to be tried out in the home 

 and in the market. Everyone in other lines of business knows that it 

 takes considerable amount of advertising of a new product to supplant 

 an older, well-known article. 



The other day a man came to my office and said T want two barrels 

 of apples for home use. Have you got the Spy. No. Have you got 

 the Greening? No. Have you got the Baldwin? No. You certainly 

 must be from New York. But we have the Jonathans and Grimes for 

 early winter use, and the Minkler and Rome Beauty of later and the 

 varieties you mention are not so good quality. He ordered a barrel 

 of Grimes and Minkler and forever after there Avill be no Greenings or 

 Baldwins in his cellar. This illustrates what I have said about sup- 

 planting the old. 



It will pay to advertise and this you are doing with your annual 

 Apple Show. It is the right thing to do. It is what has made the 

 northwest apple famous. Grow good fruit and advertise it. It is ex- 

 pensive for the individual to advertise singly. The community must 

 do it as you are doing. Observance of apple day will help. 



Buyers generally think it costs tlie grower but little beside the ex- 

 pense of harvesting the crop and tlie jtackage. They do not consider 

 the original cost of grooving the trees, the pruning, and winter and 

 summer spraying from three to seven or eight times, and the cultivation 



