422 BOARD OF AGRiqjLTLTUEE. 



times and entertainments will do more to keep the young man and woman 

 from contracting the, "city fever" than any other factor. But when a 

 business meeting is announced, make it a business affair, and the infor- 

 mation you will receive will generally be in a more available form than 

 when diluted with many discussions. If men come to a meeting expecting 

 to get other's experience to compare with their own they want it to be 

 practical, i. e., given in a simple form, and it is this that we are coming to 

 see in the trend of these meetings. 



Time is valuable, and whoever is reading a paper or delivering an ad- 

 dress before a meeting of this Icind is monopolizing as much time as the 

 length of his or her paper or address, multiplied by the number of per- 

 sons present. Then, be brief; be explicit, be practical in your work. Flow- 

 ers in their place and flowery language and poetry are admirable, but 

 geraniums in cornfields and purely oratorical flights in the midst of purely 

 practical matters are weedy and should be plucked out. 



If the year 1904 had been left off the calendar or Indiana fruit-growers 

 Avith all their trees and fruits could have slept over until 1905, many 

 think it might have been as well. While there may have been satisfac- 

 tory results with some fruits in a few favored localities, frosts, droughts 

 and unseasonable conditions generally cut the heart out of both pleasure 

 and profit of the 1904 fi-uit crop. Insect and fungus troubles have in- 

 creased and the year has been noted for fruit of inferior quality and 

 profits very far from satisfactory. Those whose business it has been to 

 scour the State for fine specimens of fruit to exhibit at the World's Fair 

 at St. Louis can best testify to the truth of the above statements. 



I fear that very few of us realize what the vast increase in wealth, 

 px'osperity and refinement among our American people mean to the fruit- 

 growing interests of the country. I thing I am safe in saying that where 

 a dollar's worth of fruit was consumed ten years ago ten dollars' worth 

 is wanted now. And unless all signs fail, one hundred dollars' worth 

 will be required to supply the demand ten j'ears hence, and the Indiana 

 fruit-grower should be prepared to supply his share of fruits that may be 

 wanted. 



This demand, however, is going to be for finer and better fruit, care- 

 fully graded and sclecte^, honestly packed in attractive packages of such 

 size as can best be transported directly as possible from field and or- 

 chard to consumer. 



Don't imagine for a moment that you will ever see the markets 

 glutted with high-grade fruits. Commercial orcharding offers a most 

 profitable opening to all who embark in the business and are willing to 

 do things well. I believe that a ten-acre farm in any good fruit section 

 of the State, if rightly iilaiited and cultivated in small fruits and orchard, 

 will give better support to a family than a two-thousand salary in the 

 city. While a twenty-five-acre orchard on some of our hill lands Is a 

 far better investineiit thnn a ten-thousand-dollar life Insurance policy. We 



