l6 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



ties for the export trade, and cost of transportation. It costs 

 fifty cents to ship a bushel of apples from Oregon or Washing- 

 ton across the country. The opening of the Panama Canal has 

 not, as yet, proved a benefit to our western competitors. It 

 costs me eleven cents to ship a bushel of apples from the 

 Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to New York, and I presume 

 your rates are even less. This difference in freight rates is a 

 nice little profit in itself. 



This picture of my farm I use to illustrate a fact that must 

 have been impressed upon you as forcibly as it has upon us, — 

 that we must put our orchards upon the hills and slopes if we 

 are to secure maximum protection from frost. I have had my 

 orchard seven years, and in that time have never lost any con- 

 siderable part of a crop from frost. Out west they pay twenty- 

 five dollars an acre or more to protect their orchards from frost 

 by the use of smudge pots. How much more practicable it is, 

 and how much it reduces the cost of production, if we have a 

 location that secures frost protection without cost. 



Steep land. You will notice that this is a gentle slope. It is 

 not necessary to get steep land in order to secure freedom from 

 frost. We have many orchards in Virginia, particularly on the 

 eastern side of the Blue Ridge, that are on steep mountainland. 

 It is so steep that those mules are having a hard time sticking 

 on it. They are hauling down six barrels of apples on a sled 

 and like as not the sled will get away from them and turn over. 

 Apples were planted on these very steep sites in order to take 

 advantage of the black mountain soil known as the Porter black 

 loam — an excellent apple soil. But I contend that one is not 

 justified in growing apples on such steep land, even to secure 

 immunity from frost and favorable soil. It is almost impossible 

 to do a thorough job of spraying on such land, and the cost of 

 all the orchard operations is increased so that it greatly increases 

 the cost of producing apples. Undoubtedly the time will come 

 when our population will be so dense that we will be obliged to 

 use these steep hillsides for apples, but not now. We can get 

 good apple land, reasonably free from frost, on moderate 

 slopes. 



Distance from shipping point. This picture shows the haul- 

 ing of apples to one of the depots in Virginia from orchards 

 twenty miles away. The distance of the orchard from the ship- 

 ping point is a vital matter. When apples were selling for six 



