352 . STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



small fruits. That we shall be known as an apple-producing people for a 

 long time to come, perhaps is true, yet the great adaptability of these light 

 soils for producing small fruits is such that the time is not far distant 

 when we shall supply the great northwest with these fruits, and not leave 

 this to be done by our less favored brethren east and south of us. But a 

 great change will have to be wrought before all this • is consummated. 

 People will have to be educated and many supplanted before all will 

 engage in fruitgrowing. Pomology is' a step in advance, intellectually, of 

 agriculture, in its limited sense, and it is hard to get people to take steps 

 forward out of old ruts. But the close competition in all business, at 

 this time, and for time to come, will force this division of labor upon us, 

 and we shall all have to cultivate the crops that by nature and our environ- 

 ments we are best adapted to grow, or be driven to the wall. In case 

 of failure, others will take our places and carry out the great law, the fittest 

 surviving. True, this is a great labor, and like other highly civilized 

 industries should be organized, should be guided by intelligence, and 

 should receive the impetus imparted from skilled hands and active brains. 



Nothing can do this work better than our pomological society. It is a 

 fact patent to every one that these organizations are among the most use- 

 ful in the land. Pomology is becoming one of the fixed sciences, and 

 reckons among its students some of our best scientific minds; and as it is 

 largely experimental, it is not profitable or wise for one to try to obtain 

 this knowledge from experience. Pomologists, as a rule, are ready to 

 impart knowledge, and a fund of information may be obtained, and many 

 mistakes avoided, by attending these meetings. One should not hesitate 

 ,to ask any question upon which he desires information . I heard an intelli- 

 gent, careful business man say, in speaking of his large peach orchard, 

 that had he known as much when he set the orchard, about tiie peculiar- 

 ities of certain varieties, their adaptability to certain soils, as he now does, 

 he would have made $10,000 out of his peach crop this year. The know- 

 ledge he gained by attending and observing his trees, is called experimental 

 knowledge, and probably any good pomologist, at the time of setting these 

 trees, could have given the information that cost him years of study and 

 hard work, and ten thousand dollars besides. 



Perhaps this is a rather strong case, but you will all agree, at least, that 

 it is better to lock the door, in matters of growing fruit, before the horse 

 is stolen. One should not engage extensively in this business without a 

 thorough understanding of it before commencing, as a mistake then 

 means, many times, a mistake through life. 



I believe that fruit-men in disposing of their products, should act, to a 

 great extent, as a single body. There should be a perfect understanding 

 and knowledge among themselves as to the best ways of growing them. 

 In fact, this appears the most difficult part of the whole business. Since 

 the number engaged in growing fruit is not large, a combination of this 

 kind is as practicable as the sugar trust, or binding twine trust, or the rail- 

 way trusts, or the thousand-and-one trusts that are formed all over the 

 land. Farmers would like to combine in this way, but are told that their 

 numbers are too great and unwieldy, and all, including themselves, are 

 agreed on this as by common consent. Hence every effort in this direc- 

 tion, so far, has proved abortive. That such a combination is possible and 

 would prove of great value to fruit-men, I have not the least doubt. In 

 fact, the organizations are a],ready formed, and all that is needed is to 

 introduce this business reform. 



