224 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



orchard near Orleans. Then we may be growing Ben Davis apples as 

 big as peck measures and Concord and Niagara grapes as large as goose 

 eggs. The products can be loaded into air ships which will carry them to 

 market. They will leave this part of the State at 3 a. m. and arrive in 

 Chicago in time for the morning market, where the contents can be sold 

 and the owner return home in time for dinner. 



FRUIT POSSIBILITIES IN SOUTHERN INDIANA. 



BY JOE A. BURTON, ORLEANS. 



The Apple.— Since 1896 southern Indiana has not grown one-fourth 

 the apples she has used. During the same time she has not used one- 

 fourth what she needed. That is, during the last six years southern In- 

 diana has produced less than one-sixteenth of the apples needed for home 

 consumption. A herculean task is assigned me to convince these people 

 they ought to go into apple growing for profit in the face of these facts. 

 One missionary, having labored seven years in a heathen land without a 

 convert, was asked to desist; that nothing could be accomplished. He re- 

 plied that he would not desist, for the Internal God had promised success. 

 Well, the Eternal God has abundantly combined the necessary conditions 

 for successful apple growing here. The only requisite left out is the suit- 

 able man. When I try to induce my neighbors to grow apples, they say 

 "Oh, yes, we know you can grow them, but we can't." Some say I ought 

 to grow them for the whole community. 



Now, I think I know my own worth and abilities better than anybody 

 else, and I know it has not been by the free use of ability that I have 

 succeeded in apple growing. I have applied very little of what knowledge 

 I had in producing my good crops. Like many of my neighbors, I know 

 better than I do. Did I use as much care in attending my orchard as some 

 of my neighbors do in their grain crops, my success would be phenomenal. 

 I hope to do better in the future, but whether this will induce others to 

 engage in the business, or deter them, is uncertain. If they attribute my 

 success alone to my efforts, and not to the natural advantages of the 

 country, they will be driven further away. I have grown fine apples, 

 largely because it is easy to grow fine apples. I had the finest Winesaps 

 at Paris, probably because there Avere no other Winesaps there from 

 southern Indiana. I have taken first premium on Winesaps for years till 

 this year, when another man from southern Indiana brought up some 

 and beat me, and says he will do it again. Yes, and he may beat me on 

 Grimes. Now, I beg pardon for talking so much about myself, but I want 



